1 Scotland would officially be one of the world's
richest countries - ranked 6th in the OECD compared to the UK's 16th
place. We have 24billion barrels of oil remaining in the North Sea,
according to industry body Oil and Gas UK. That's £1.5trillion in
today's prices - half as much in value as has been taken out.
2 We also have around 25 per cent of Europe's
potential offshore wind and tidal energy - and a tenth of Europe's wave
power. An extra 45 per cent of renewable energy was generated in
Scotland last year, according to the UK Department of Energy. It's more
than we need and can be exported for cash.
3 Other countries want to invest here. The recent
Ernst & Young UK Attractiveness Survey highlighted Scotland's
leading position in the UK for job creation from international
investment. With independence, we can make the country even more
attractive to these employers.
4 Independence will allow us to keep services such
as the NHS and the welfare state. In England they are being privatised
and cut. Benefits are being taken from the needy and the Scottish
Parliament can't stop that under present powers.
5 Scotland has five of the top 200 universities in
the world. We also punch well above our weight in the number of research
papers they produce. It means our historic reputation as a well
educated nation is flourishing. We give our universities one of the best
packages of support in Europe, with no fees for students from Scotland.
With independence we can do even more.
6 We'll have more money in our pockets. If we got
back what we sent south in tax, official figures show every Scot would
have £510 more a year. The only tax the Scottish Government controls
just now is council tax, and it's frozen under the SNP. Imagine if we
controlled fuel duty, national insurance, VAT and income tax.
7 Our government would be more streamlined.
Scotland, like Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Finland, is a goldilocks
country - not too big and not too small. The UK wastes money on bloated
institutions bogged down by bureaucracy - look at HMRC, the tax
authority. It's gone from one calamity to another. The rich get away
with evasion while the rest are overcharged.
8 Mobiles would work and we'd all get high-speed
broadband. Telecommunications are controlled in London. Westminster
auctions licences to phone companies but only demands 90 per cent
coverage of the UK. This means "notspots" in much of Scotland. Broadband
is patchy too, and it doesn't help that Scotland's capital budget has
been cut by a third by the Tories.
9 Our culture would get a boost. We'd have control
over broadcasting and more high-quality programmes could be made here.
Our news would no longer look hand-knitted compared with well funded UK
offerings. We could export high-quality drama and our young bands would
have a platform on the radio.
10 Imagine the goodwill. Scotland is held in high
regard around the world - by those who know us. But being buried in
brand Britain means sometimes we don't get to shine as we should.
Independence would generate global interest. We would be the new kid on
the block - young, modern, and happening.
14 comments:
Yes .. but the clown leading the drive .. Alex Samond plans to sign us up to the EU (if it hasn't broken up already).
That clown you are talking about has said that its one decision he would not just jump into and it would depend on how the EU was with regards to stability! Yes to Independence is the way forward for Scots.
"We have 24billion barrels of oil remaining in the North Sea" which is precisely why you can't go, just yet. Once we have taken that then 'away ye go' and see how you get on with "25 per cent of Europe's potential offshore wind and tidal energy" ROFL.
Hope you don't mind, but I've copied this (with full credits of course).
It's just too great not to have on the blog.
mavers, he's only the figure head who will take us there, or not and I probably expect no with the number of ferties in Scotland.
Elaineers, welcome to the blog. As I've said many times on this blog, support for the EU is not anything like even 60% in the SNP, IMO. Norway's model is the way to go.
banned, FFS, have you not been paying attention! I posted about MUON FUSION, weeks ago which is the way energy will be produced in the future, but of course until some bright bastard invents a decent battery for a car we will still need petrol and diesel. STAR.au are at the final stage of their international testing as we speak, look it up, I'm lucky enough to be a minor shareholder!
Tris, of course, I don't believe in censorship!
Actually DL cars can run on water no problem. There is also Free Energy as per what they used on 9/11 plus there is also Magnetic Motors that could be used for generating the energy of each household but the energy companies do not want us plebs to have these nor do our governments. They only want to have some type of energy where they can rip us all off for as much as they can.
If you get independance then I'd be tempted to emmigrate if you could just do something about the crap weather!
DL
Just a heads up: Got a few - 3/4 odd Twitter messages under your moniker. To wit and along the lines of "you should see the bad things role are saying about you...". The last one was more sinister in that it stated (approx), "Am looking at your photograph and (expletive) laughing my (expletive) head off at you".
I ignored them, but there was some other, similar activity on Twitter yesterday involving Edinburgh Eye and Direct Mail to me (EE informed and has taken precautions). Have you noticed any unusual activity re your account? Looks like a hijack attempt.
Txs for latest blogs. Have resent them on into the agora.
Best
Daibhidh
Hi David, thanks I have been hacked but hopefully things should be back to normal.
English dont like scots so wats the big deal aw thts right england would need new guinea pigs ie wales....fuck the english we want and will have freedom an yes the oil dont forget the gas and scotland has also found copper gold silver n platinum deposits in highland plus our water man if we scots gt this how skint will they C U N T S be
Not long ago (in 1999), SNP leader Alex Salmond described the pound as a ‘millstone around Scotland’s neck’ and derided the currency in 2009. Today he is desperate to keep it, realising that an independent currency would be so volatile and problematic that it would dissuade investors, reduce trade with the rest of the world and threaten to turn Scotland into an economic backwater.
The European Union has effectively ruled out Scotland joining the euro (or even the EU) for many years, leaving Salmond exposed and blustering.
2 Delusions of oil grandeur
The SNP’s main economic platform is that Scotland should own the revenue from North Sea oil and gas, making it a petro-dollar paradise equivalent to Norway. Although they have similar populations (5.05 million for Norway, 5.3 million for Scotland), the hydrocarbon revenues are massively different. Norway’s government gathered $40 billion in 2013 (according to the BBC) while the UK made $10.8 billion (according to the Financial Times), a fall of 40 per cent from 2012. Current predictions? Further falls, to £3.3 billion ($5.5 billion) in 2016/17, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
There’s no amount of careful stewardship that is going to magic $5.5 billion into $40 billion, when many of the North Sea rigs are at the end of their life and production levels are falling.
3 Financial mismanagement
Scotland’s banks have become a byword for chaos and catastrophic losses, after the hubris of the 1990s turned into the near-collapse of the mid-2000s with massive rescue packages needed for Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds (both of them based in Edinburgh). The SNP announced in November 2013 that, under future independence arrangements, the Bank of England ‘would become a lender of the last resort’ following any future crises.
This would mean taxpayers in the rest of the UK bailing out Scottish banks, despite them being in an ‘independent’ country. The evident nonsense of this position seems to be lost on the Scottish National Party.
As one website remarked, Alex Salmond believes he still has the right to use gym equipment, despite giving up his membership. ‘I have been a member for many, many years, so why they think everything in the club is for the exclusive use of the remaining members is completely beyond me,’ the website imagined him wondering.
4 Loss of credibility
The UK has sunk an awful long way since the height of empire in the 19th century, but it remains the world’s sixth-largest economy and the second-largest in Europe behind Germany. This confers all kinds of useful benefits, including low interest rates, a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, leadership in NATO, a major role at G20 conferences and in the WTO, among many others.
For decades, even centuries, Scots have been at the heart of this economic presence, as Chancellors of the Exchequer (Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling under Labour, Norman Lamont under the Tories) or as Prime Minister (Brown again, Tony Blair – even David Cameron has Scottish roots). They also helped to build and maintain the Empire.
So instead of a seat at this high global table, Scotland seeks to become… what? The new Slovakia (population 5.4 million, average income $24,000)? It’s an instructive parallel. Slovakia became independent of the Czech Republic in 1993 because the Czechs wanted rid of their poorer partner under the forced communist marriage of Czechoslovakia. The SNP, by contrast, is under the illusion that Scotland would emerge a wealthier nation than it is today by ditching its richer partner. The logic is perverse.
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