Posted on 09/16/2014 9:11:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Should Scotland be an independent country?" reads the referendum on which Scotland will vote Thursday. Voters have two choices -- yes or no.
Queen Elizabeth II went so far as to tell Scots on Sunday, "I hope people will think very carefully about the future." The queen was savvy to urge Scots to look ahead, not behind. The Scottish Parliament building opened in 2004 after the Scotland Act 1978 allowed for local control. It is a marvel of modern architecture located off Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Its open architecture and use of glass, oak and sycamore display a determination to root political power not in the moldy grandeur of nearby Holyrood Palace but in iconoclasm and steel. Sadly, from that futuristic perch, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has dredged up ancient grievances to push his country back in time -- before the 1707 Act of Union with England.
"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling has likened Scottish independence to an acrimonious divorce. Expect bitter battles over who gets custody over the pound, the banks, the royals. "I doubt that an independent Scotland will be able to bank on its ex-partners' fond memories of the old relationship once we've left," Rowling warned in June. She has donated more than $1.6 million to the Better Together "no" campaign.
Nonsense to that, the "yes" lobby counters. On Sky News recently, Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill argued that if the referendum passes, the usual social union, the currency and the monarchy will remain intact. If anything, he added, the 300-year peace, friendship and "cordial relationship" will emerge stronger.
Scotsman Jim Murphy, a member of the British Parliament, laughed at the idea there could be no hard feelings if Scotland votes "to make England a foreign country."
In June, President Barack Obama spoke against an "aye" vote when he spoke of America's "deep interest in making sure that one of the closest allies that we will ever have, the United Kingdom, remains strong, robust, united and an effective partner." Obama should have used stronger language, as he will need a strong United Kingdom in the war (yes, war) against the Islamic State.
It can be no accident that a masked Islamic State henchman engaged in the brutal beheading of aid worker David Haines, a Briton and a Scotsman, as the big vote looms. MacAskill has told Sky News that a "yes" vote would bring the very liberal Scotland freedom from decisions made under the coalition government of conservative Prime Minister David Cameron -- that is, freedom from British defense spending and any wars into which the United Kingdom is drawn.
But it's not that easy to opt out of war when terrorists are willing to export it -- as MacAskill well should know. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270, including 11 Scots on the ground. A Scottish court found Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi guilty. Al-Megrahi received a life sentence and was to be eligible for parole after 20 years, but he served a mere eight years in a Scottish prison. On the dubious ground that prostate cancer left al-Megrahi with less than three months to live, MacAskill granted him "compassionate" release in 2009. The son of the late Moammar Gadhafi flew the terrorist home to a hero's welcome on a tarmac in Tripoli, where Scotland's worst mass murderer lived until 2012. Salmond explained, "Sometimes someone has to break the cycle of retribution with an act of compassion." It's a shame his Scottish National Party doesn't feel the same way about Great Britain.
As I said, I wasn’t there and got my news from news websites in Edinburgh and Scotland. They were reporting no trouble, and no animosity. Don’t shoot the messenger.
I like you wouldn’t lose a minutes sleep if the OO didn’t exist.
And Rangers fans have changed over the decades, most real fans, those of us who go every week, now see the overly religious type of behaviour prevalent in years gone by as embarassing now. We’d rather leave it behind as the Gers re-establish themselves. Still proud to be Scottish and British, but without the Cath-Prod baggage.
At Ibrox now, the religious songs are heard little (and usually only to raise the roof at big matches), there has been a great resurgence of club songs: The Famous Glasgow Rangers, Penny Arcade, Follow Follow, Four Men Had a Dream etc......
They will never change, they were good at shouting abuse at women and young kids on Saturday at Abbeyhill as they went to the Hibs match, funny never shouted at me or my sons then again we are all fully grown.
What you bring up here is what becomes of the minority of loyalist Scots in the event that the bid for Scottish independence wins: If polls are accurate, the split is almost 50/50 and that means a huge minority facing a slim majority.
Do the loyalist Scots now become some angry Scottish version of Northern Ireland if 'Yes' wins? I'd sure be inconsolably angry if I were a loyalist Scot living in Scotland and knew that half of the Scots I encountered on a daily basis decided to drag me along with them on this sketchy new journey of an independent Scotland. With plans they can't articulate, questions they cannot answer, and positions they can't rationalize: They'll have to vote for it to find out what's in it.
Political academic scientists have speculated that at the time of the American Revolution some 80% of Colonists were in favor of independence. The 20% of loyalists remaining are whom we now call Canadians. That's what happened after our War Of Independence, but where do 50% of loyalist Scots go? They're captives who've been unwillingly dragged along for the ride into hardcore socialism, make no mistake.
Did I say we didn’t have bampots?. We do, as do Celtic, Hibs, Ayr, Kilmarnock and every team. There are Rangers fans I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire. But most Rangers fans and most fans (just like most YES/NO) are fine and just normal football fans.
p.s we haven’t played Hibs since the Challenge Cup game at Ibrox at the start of August and don’t play them again until the 29th Sept, again at Ibrox. And Rangers played on Friday night at Kirkcaldy, not Saturday.
I know when we last played, ref sent off a Hibs player and gave rangers their usual dodgy penalty. I was talking about the guys who think a rangers top is a fashion item to be worn 7 days a week.
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