Break-up of the UK?

[redken1]

I was involved in Scottish politics for many years. Although I believe on the whole that Scotland would be better served with full independence, I suspect many of the ‘Floaters' will get cold feet when the time comes to scribble the cross on the referendum paper. Scotland is a completely different political animal to England as past general elections clearly show. The Tories are basically a non-entity north of the border and if Cameron keeps wading in with heavy-handed rhetoric he will undoubtedly help the independence cause in my opinion.

We must not forget that successive UK governments have assisted and offered their blessing to the citizens of many countries around the world (including Europe) where they followed a democratic path to full independence. If it is the will of the Scots to go it alone, then I’m sure issues such as the break up of the UK, armed forces, etc will be resolved in a democratic grown-up manner.

[Ade]

.. need to re-build Hadrians wall by Aug 2014 !! ... with a few passport controls along it

[pilninggas]

Can't help but think when it comes to a vote the general scottish populace will bottle-it (like they did in the seventies) and want to stay in the union.

When do I get my vote to bomb the Celtic provinces out of the 'union'?

[Jon_W]

So how come england and wales dosen't get a say?? Is our country as well.

[redken1]

Can't help but think when it comes to a vote the general scottish populace will bottle-it (like they did in the seventies) and want to stay in the union.

When do I get my vote to bomb the Celtic provinces out of the 'union'?

To answer your question Merv – An English National Party committed to the break-up of the union, which enjoys the same level of support as the Scottish Nats (45.4 percent of the votes cast at 20011 Holyrood election) does not exist. In contrast to the Scottish electorate, the massive majority of the English electorate supports the 3 main unionist parties.

Under the terms of the UK constitution, legally, Westminster has the final word on the Scottish referendum agenda, but Cameron knows that to follow that path would be political suicide for the Tories in Scotland. On that point interestingly, according to the SNP, “In the first 24 hours after David Cameron’s intervention people were signing up to join the SNP at a rate of one every nine minutes.”

I agree with you that when the time comes the majority of Scots may well “Bottle-it” and that is why Salmond is hedging his bets with a contingency measure in the event of a no vote. I suspect that the majority of Scots may well vote in favour of his proposed second question seeking greater powers for the devolved parliament.

Finally, Perhaps Salmond is stalling on a referendum until late 2014 to allow the Westminster cuts to bite in Scotland and to give his Scottish government the time to implement its popular policies which fall within its remit (like lowering the voting age to 16 year olds).

Certainly not a done deal :-/