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Scottish Independence

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Re:

Postby Gubbins on Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:53 pm

Whatever there is to be said for increased Scottish autonomy or full-blown independence, as Gealle said, it comes in the face of growing integration with the EU. Making Scotland independent in some respects merely shifts it from a semi-autonomous state within the United Kingdom to a semi-autonomous state within the European Union.

I would also agree with Grant's idea of the apparently growing opposition to many of the EU's new integrated policies. It's simply not possible on the timescale in which it is being implimented to take a (growing) set of peoples and cultures and stick them together in one big mixing bowl, shove in a few new laws, give it a good stir and expect everything to turn out well.

At the risk of straying off topic, two examples here. My first example is merely to say that I'm not just spouting shit. My parents have recently emigrated to the continent. They have not moved into an English enclave on Costa Fortuna, they have moved into a farmstead in a region in Portugal suffering from rural depopulation. They are learning to speak the language and working with the people in the village and adopting local customs. In short, they are making the effort to integrate. And if my rather bigotted old fart of a father can do it, I'm sure people coming over here can too.

My other example is the recent influx of eastern Europeans due to EU expansion. This not only creates a problem of lack of space and integration in this country (the population of Inverness now consists of 10% Poles, with around 10000 arriving in the last few years), it also creates a de-population crisis and skills shortage in their home countries. Surely instead we should, as a community, be looking at the issues behind the immigration before opening the floodgates?

So is Scottish independence a good idea? I think people look on it with a rather rose-tinted view, and see it as a good idea in principle, without looking at the practicalities of it. While it might be okay, or even beneficial to us in the short term, we would then lose the financial and social stability that comes with being part of a larger body, like the UK. Roughly the same could be said of the UK's place in the EU, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.

[hr]

...then again, that is only my opinion.
...then again, that is only my opinion.
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Euros

Postby Scroggs on Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:48 pm

When/if Scotland gets independence we will probably have to adopt the Euro. I have no problem with this.

What I'm wondering though is how could we? All the other countries have simply pegged their currencies to the Euro and then priced everything in both and gradually removed the old currency.

How could Scotland do this since we don't have our own currency?

The only options that I can see is to either

* Convince the government of the "United Kingdom of England, Wales & Northern Ireland" to peg the sterling to the euro. (not impossible as the GBP was pegged to the USD in 1940)

* Launch the Scottish pound which would be pegged to the sterling to start with and then switch to being pegged to the euro. (A lot of hassle needing new coins notes etc, and likely very expensive)

I know this is highly hypothetical, but I was curious.
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Re:

Postby munchingfoo on Thu Apr 24, 2008 1:44 pm

We could something "Dark City"esque.

Just stop time at midnight then change everyones memory to that of Euros instead of Sterling.

Perfect.

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I'm not a large water-dwelling mammal Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis? Did Steve
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Re: Scottish Independence

Postby Hennessy on Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:09 am

Come and gone. The high water mark was probably sometime this morning.

Well done Scotland for showing the rest of the world how democracy is practised.
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