Ian, anyone who resides permanently in Scotland is eligible to vote.....that includes the Thousands of English people, almost 2% of the population, who've settled here over the years. They don't like the way their own country has deteriorated and they've came north to enjoy a quieter, fairer way of life.

regarding the makeup of England's regions....they all have different influences which have shaped their views. Geordies from Tyneside are probably more like the Scots than their southern neighbours in the "Home Counties". Scousers from Liverpool are predominantly Irish exiles who had to flee because of the Potato Famine. Brummies,from the "Black Country", like Malcolm on this forum,had a hard struggle to survive over the centuries, which also shaped their opinions. Unfortunately it also opened the door to the likes of Red Robbo to exploit grievances and bring about the demise of the Car Industry in the UK.  Suffolk/Norfolk regions were mainly farmers, and are to this day. The farther south you get the less friendly, and arrogant the people become.

someone else mentioned the Stuart dynasty and Bonnie Prince Charlie, a Scot exile born and raised in France. Like his father who also tried to make a grab for the BRITISH throne in 1715, Charles was a chancer. However lots of English nobility liked the idea he was better than the GERMAN alternative from the house of Hannover. Makes you wonder if the American colonies would have rebelled if a Stuart King had still been on the British throne.

Like the people of Eire, who made a stand for Independence of their country, this is OUR time to vote for our kids future. We already have our own Parliament in Edinburgh, but without freedom to dictate our financial decisions. We always have to go cap in hand to London to ask for money to push through any development projects in Scotland. We have lots of rain here, so plenty of water, which presently gets piped to the south to meet the shortfall down there. Will the Tap be turned off if we vote Yes? Will we have poor English people queuing at the border with Water jugs begging us to give them a drink of water?

Obviously lots of voters are letting their hearts rule their heads with all that Braveheart fiction crap by Mel Gibson. Whichever way the vote goes.....the Genie is well and truly out of the bottle and it will alter forever the way London looks at us in the north. Their cage has been well and truly shaken.

way back around 1979 the Welsh and Scots were given a chance to vote in a Referendum about Independence. The  Welsh voted to stay with the UK, but we voted to breakaway by a majority vote. However Maggie moved the goalposts and said a majority vote wasn't enough.....it had to be 66% to change the status quo.

latest Polls this morning suggest No...52%, Yes...48%. The undecided will obviously sway the outcome and it could go either way. Interesting times indeed. Saor Alba which is Gaelic for, Free Scotland

I think the most interesting issue will be "Who's a Scot??"

Presumably anyone registed to vote with an address in Scotland is eligeable to vote in the referendum??

Presumably there's going to be a transition period - someone mentioned 5 years??  So I suppose they'll set up some form of authority whose job it will be to receive applications and award citizenship??

Actually this is what my Daughter does at present - for Oz citizenship... but she applies Commonwelath law.  For Scotland someone has to write the law...but they have to be voted in first...by who??

The UK says they're not going to allow Scots to use the pound.... will they let them use English..

Oh, to be a Gaelic speaking lawyer (with a Scottish address

Cheers, Ian

Allright now this is getting interesting, what is the legend of the "deep Southern English twat" and are they a common personality type?  

As a Californian I am used to being loved by the rest of the country like a case of diptheria.  

I just wonder (if the Scots are successful in leaving the UK) what the ramifications it will cause in Northern Ireland?  Also, since someone brought up something about a clown, you just had to laugh at the Mini 50 when "the CLOWN" was stupic enough to fly over to Scotland and change all his currency into Scottish pounds and wondered why no one in England would take them...what an ***!

Alex....as usual your mouth is all brown....and your post quite succinctly explains the condescending manner of deep Southern English twats. Some of your ridiculous gaffes on this Forum are legend!!

i for one will be voting Yes..... What seems to have been glossed over down south is the Oil reserves off the South West coast of Scotland.  There was oil exploration searches carried out in the early 80s which confirmed there was oil in relatively easy to drill sheltered waters in the Firth of Clyde. However the Ministry of Defence vetoed it, on the grounds it would interfere with the traffic going to, and from the Nuclear Sub base at Faslane. If we win....then the Base will close within a 5 year timescale, which will allow exploration of OUR assets. I lived in the North of England for 9 years and my 2 kids were born there, so I do not have an anti English bias,(except below the M4 corridor) but Scotland has a totally different set of moral values to the people in the DEEP south of England. We can build a better country without the Tory values of Margaret Thatchers disciples. It's been quite amusing watching all the major Politicians falling over themselves begging us not to leave....but that wouldn't be because of the Trillion dollar estimates of oil revenue would it. Nah, that would be too cynical a view to take.

Thatcher commissioned a Report of the estimated revenues in the North Sea, way back in the early 80s..Google...The McCrone Report...which was hidden from the public as it showed that she deliberately hid the vast wealth out there for her own political ends.

Finally, on a personal note Alex, only a total clown would come on an American Forum and criticise the death of a Terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans in the World Trade Centre. Maybe if you feel so strongly about the Independence issue, we could meet up at Uttoxeter Show later this year and you can tell me to my face what you don't like about us Scots?  Jim

This situation is not unlike our problems that we had with the Province of Quebec who wanted to become a sovereign state and leave Canada, well they didn't really want to leave physically, they wanted to succeed from Canada-

This was based on the English/French language issue-

It was close, like 51/49 in favour of them staying in Canada, BTW that was a Quebec vote taken within Quebec-The sepparist party faded away after that but there are still many in Quebec who are still in favour of it- In the case of Canada, Quebecs' leaving would split the country in two .creating a real problem, like would l need a passport to vist ve99a in New Brunswick

Sticky items like what currency would they use ? , what about all of our Federal buildings in Quebec, Post offices etc-, and where would they get their Federal pensions from- Just mind boggling- Glad they are still part of Canada and it makes us stronger- BIG AL

And then the Orkney Islands want to come under Norwegian rule if Scotland is successfull!

Well, actually he's a Yank...  Born in NY I believe??  At one time we did try to civilise him ..but it didn't work

Cheers, Ian

Let me get this straight, there's a country above England called Scotland? Next your going to try and tell me there's a country above the USA called Canada!

have seen that film a bunch of times at my house

that scene occurs before he yells "Freedom" while being drawn and quartered.

Wait, I've seen this movie.  ictish running a muck lead by Aussie.

I always though Scotland kept their vast gas reserves hidden inside their equally vast Haggis Farms? 

why cant we all get along?  Aren't you all united in one kingdom? England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland.

So the vast swathes of gas (real gas, not american gas - LOL) from around the north of the UK are not owned by scotland but the UK (of which scotland wants to leave)???

So if the scots decide to secede of the united kingdom, so they also relinquish their stake in the gas reserves?

Ah yes,

Scotland has (actually HAD) the oil, but England has the gas.

What about all that off-shore oil? Seem to remember it had a major effect on Aberdeen area when they started harvesting it in the early 1980's.

Wow, I just Googled and the population of Scotland is precisely 10% that of England at only 5.3M.

I haven't been north of York so don't have a feel for Scottish patriotism.  But I'm active in the San Francisco Caledonian Club, the largest in the US.  The referendum simply isn't a topic, and when I've asked there's a lot of eye-rolling.

Just showed the mini at the Alameda Scottish Games, attended by 30,000 people over 2 days.  One wonders what percentage of the population was in California just for that.

It's almost approaching Irish mythology in the states; where everyone claims to be Irish yet hasn't the slightest desire to visit there.

 

Alex Salmond is a nasty little man who is inciting the Scots to insurrection.
The sooner he dies the better.

Having said that, I hope the Scottish part of our island votes a resounding NO and tells him to **** off.
On the other hand, it would be very, very amusing to see a YES vote - and then watch us throw up a security fence, insist on visa access only, stop them using the Pound, refuse them entry to the EU (which will be vetoed by any other European country with a militant seperatist element) and laugh at them as they sink in a mire of their own thoughtless creation.

England and Wales will survive without the Scots, but Scotland can't support itself on it's own. 

I've been in CA a number of years now and never heard a canuck calla Brit a pomm....I think that's a NZ or Australian thing.
I've not heard anything about a possible separation......something like a minority in quebec wanting to leave the greatest country and try it themselves?