Scottish independence: new poll gives no vote six-point lead

theguardian.com ^ | 10 September 2014 | Severin Carrell

[Berlin_Freeper]

A new opinion poll on Scottish independence has found the no vote back in the lead at 53% of voters, suggesting the sudden surge in backing for independence has subsided.

Only days after a spate of polls suggested the referendum race was neck and neck, the Survation poll for the Daily Record has found that the no vote is now at 53%, giving the pro-UK campaign a six point gap over yes.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The thought of forcing Englishmen to continue paying for their welfare is just too compelling.

[buwaya]

I agree.
If they want to go they should go.
A close no means this will come back, over and over.

[Hugin]

More like a case of reason catching up with emotion, I suspect. From what I’ve read, it would be a bad deal for the Scots. They would go from being a poor part of a fairly prosperous country, to a bankrupt socialist state under the EU thumb.

[livius]

There’s also the question of defense. If they do not have the rest of the UK to rely on for defense, what are they going to do? Grab their daggers out of their socks and attack?

In addition, ALL of the UK’s nuclear capability (supplied by the US) is located in Scotland. This is going to have to be moved to England and will be a massive disruption of defense in general, their economy, and international relationships.

Maybe it’s dawning on them that there’s a lot more to this independence stuff than they’d considered. Scotland is the most Socialist part of the UK, and also has a very high Muslim population, and I’d say those two groups probably had a lot to do with the independence movement to begin with.

[Repeal 16-17]

They should take a county by county result and let the parts that vote No stay in the U.K.

It's what will happen if Scotland secedes from Great Britain. The counties that voted "no" will secede from Scotland and rejoin Great Britain. Remember how we got West Virginia.

[Hugin]

A close no means this will come back, over and over.

Like Quebec and Puerto Rico? They keep having votes, and people keep rejecting independence.

[colorado tanker]

No! Texas is protecting us from total liberal insanity!

[Berlin_Freeper]

(Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday begged Scots not to rip apart the United Kingdom's "family of nations", flying to Scotland to man the barricades against a surge in support for independence eight days before a referendum.

"I would be heartbroken if this family of nations was torn apart," said Cameron

[familyop]

"It's beyond my comprehension why the Scots would give up their pretty good deal with England and want to join the EU. The EU and its bankers have destroyed everything they've touched.

And the EU? Once a country gets in, they can never leave. The bankers own them. "

The U.K. is a member of the E.U.

[familyop]

"They would go from being a poor part of a fairly prosperous country, to a bankrupt socialist state under the EU thumb."

The U.K. is a member of the E.U.

[MadMitch]

Scotland has only 8.3% of the UK’s population. 8.3%! Remember this important figure... 8.3%

But we DO have...

32% of the land area.
61% of the sea area.
90% of the fresh water.
65% of the natural gas production.
96.5% of the crude oil production.
47% of the open cast coal production
81% of the untapped coal reserves
62% of the timber production
46% of the total forest area
92% of the hydro electric production
40% of the wind wave and solar energy production
60% of the fish landings
30% of the beef herd
20% of the sheep herd
9% of the dairy herd
10% of the pig herd
15% if the cereal holdings
20% of the potato holdings
...obviously 100% of the Scotch Whisky industry.

We have a...
17 billion pound construction industry
13 billion food and drink industry
10 billion business services industry
9.3 billion chemical services industry
A 9.3 billion tourism industry
7 billion financial services industry
5 billion aeroservice industry
4.5 billion pound whiskey exports industry
3.1 billion pound life sciences industry
Scotland still has 350 million pounds worth of textile exports

We have 25% of Europes wave and wind energy potential.

And finally we are blessed to have 1.5 trillion pound worth of oil and gas reserves.

All of this, yet only 8.3% of The UK’s population... Whaow Scotland should be rich!

IGNORANCE...
If you hear anyone saying “I DONT LIKE ALEX SALMOND” or “I DONT LIKE SNP”...
THIS VOTE IS ABOUT SCOTLAND’S RIGHT TO ELECT ITS OWN GOVERNMENT... IT HAS NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH ALEX SALMOND OR THE SNP.
DONT LET POLITICAL IGNORANCE RUIN THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Do you know... This is the UK’s legacy of success in our history of being better-together is as follows...

The UK has the 3rd lowest pensions in the 34 OECD countries of the world

The UK has the single most expensive childcare in the European Union

The UK has the second lowest-paid economy in the entire developed world

The UK has the 3rd longest working hours in the EU

The UK has the lowest number of holidays in the EU

The UK has the 8th highest gender inequality pay gap out of the EU’s 28 countries

The UK has the highest likelihood of poverty in disablement in the EU

The UK has the highest rail prices in Europe

The UK has the second highest housing cost in Europe

The UK has the highest fuel poverty rates in Europe.

The UK is the 4th highest country of wealth inequality in the entire planet!

But surely these awful figures cannot be possible when you read the following Scottish statistics...

Now, finally, did you also know that in all of the UK’s elections for Westminster ever!... Not one vote cast in SCOTLAND has ever mattered! Because of the Westminster numbers, whatever government England votes for, the UK gets. So we have no democracy here!!! 4 decades of tory rule that we voted against is proof enough, and our defiance was punished by the closure of all the mines; closure of all the steelworks; closure of all the shipyards losing hundreds if thousands of jobs. The term used by Westminster’s Thatcher when these industries needed some assistance was “let the markets decide”. Funny how when the greedy bankers collapsed everywhere they were bailed out to the tune of over a trillion pounds of our money... Not a mention of “let the markets decide”.

FACTS:
Fact: Scotland has an oil boom waiting to happen on the West Coast, but Michael Hesaltine signed a cessation of any form of oil exploration in the entire area in the 80’s to make way for nuclear submarines which Scotland doesn’t want!

Fact: Scotland has shown its revulsion time and time again to nuclear weapons but they place them here against our countries wishes. A recent contingency report was carried out a out the feasibility of relocating them in Portsmouth. The report stated that it was unfeasible because the detrimental risk to the area of an incident was too high. (Ok for the Clyde though)

Fact: Scotland, with only 1 Tory MP, was forced to take the shocking attack on the poor & disabled called The Bedroom Tax, even though as our nations government, Holyrood voted to utterly reject this awful tax on the poor. Westminster gave us it anyway!

Fact: We are led to believe that the oil in our waters is finished and its a dying industry. Yet 13.5 billion has been invested by oil companies in the last 2 years alone!

Fact: The Clair Oil Field is about to open, and on its own has over 650 million barrels which will be extracted over 20+ years with production reaching a hundred thousand barrels a day!

Fact: Scotland gives more to Westminster than it gets back. Do you really think they’d be so keen to keep us if we were being subsidised like they’d have us believe?

Fact: Westminster has amassed over £1.3 trillion debt and still growing at nearly £6000 a second. Thats another £516 million today alone which YOU will have to pay for.

Fact: Of the 178 countries that have gained their own independence across this planet, not one single one of them has ever asked to reverse this independence, and very few of them have the assets we have.

SCOTLAND, WHAT ARE WE SCARED OF? WE HAVE A CHANCE... WITHOUT A SINGLE BULLET BEING FIRED, WITHOUT A SINGLE DEATH... TO GET OUR FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PUT A CROSS IN THE YES BOX.

SCOTLAND, ITS TIME TO STAND UP AS A NATION AND VOTE YES ON THE 18TH OF SEPTEMBER... AND BECOME A FREE AND CARING NATION AGAIN!!!

VOTE YES AND SET OUR COUNTRY FREE!!!!

[grania]

So you'd think Scotland would use freedom as a way to get out of the EU. And what would happen to their money? Would they have to use the Euro?

I could understand if the independence vote is for independence. It isn't.

[Hugin]

The UK is sort of half in, half out. They still have their own currency, therefore are still an actual nation. Michael Savage used to say borders, language and culture define a nation, but he left out currency. Without control of currency a you can’t really be an independent nation.

[dware]

Wallace would be ashamed.

Got that right. As a Scotsman, I'm pretty disappointed.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Well done, Britain, for a fair referendum – it’s a shame Canada didn’t manage it
Boy, would I have loved to have had the Scottish referendum before the one we had in Quebec in 1995, for which I was strategist for the yes campaign.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Britain's 3 tactical errors in the Scottish Independence vote

[Hugin]

Fact: Of the 178 countries that have gained their own independence across this planet, not one single one of them has ever asked to reverse this independence, and very few of them have the assets we have.

Well, duh! If they did, they aren't one of the 178 countries anymore, are they? Texas comes to mind.

[longtermmemmory]

is there any proof this is a propaganda push poll?

seems very suspect.

ala kerrry polling five points ahead of gwbush the sunday before elections.

[familyop]

"The UK is sort of half in, half out. They still have their own currency, therefore are still an actual nation."

True. But with independence, Scotland instead of England would then control Scotland's North Sea oil royalties. And the reason for Scotland leaning only slightly more to the fiscal (but not moral) left than England: England has had more control over government-linked commerce for a very long time.

I don't believe that the immediate situation would improve either way that the vote goes (also see corruption in the last such vote). But with a prevailing yes vote and no election fraud, lessons about self-sufficiency, honest cooperation and freedom might be learned in both England and Scotland. Possibly a chance for the future.

The "City" (banks in London) is notorious worldwide for its corruption, anti-western strategy and tendency toward "empire." There's corruption in Scotland, too. Maybe a shake-up, some extra physical labor here and there and some treaties would be helpful.

[familyop]

Most Scots have repeatedly been given only two choices: starve or receive benefits and be labeled as more communistic than the English. Such repeated “choices” led to the current situation with the SNP in position.

But Scotland has more natural resources, including oil (currently controlled by English bankers), and a desire to increase manufacturing. The truth of the matter is that both countries are in a pitiful political and economic state, much like ours—a result of those recurring choices in stride with the effective outlawing of owner-building of homes and new, small production businesses.

It’s the same “choice” faced by most of the people on this planet and a dilemma that will soon be corrected the real choice to begin producing without anti-competition regulations and licenses standing in the way. So one way or the other, the other being open source development of everything (not only computer operating systems).

People have a natural right to work, produce and harvest natural resources on their own land without a regime of regulations for violating that right.