Posted on 09/18/2014 12:34:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Follow Breitbart London's LIVE coverage of the Scottish Independence Referendum on our live blog below:
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers
Kids at Yes rally outside Scottish Parliament. Pipes playing. Feels like a vigil #indyref
2:06 PM - 18 Sep 2014
5 Retweets 3 favorites
09/18 14:06 by Donna Edmunds
Back in October last year Russell Brand made waves by urging people to incite revolution by not voting. He admitted in an interview with Jeremy Paxman that he had never voted, and never intended to, but went on to exhort people not to vote, claiming that democracy needed to be swept away. (You can read the full babbling transcript here.)
Has he changed his mind?(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
No, I don't believe so. Just people being people, deciding things based on greed and emotion. Leftists believe if government has more power, takes money from the rich and gives it to them they will be better off. They think that the North Sea oil will make them another Norway. It may in the short term, but I don't think it will be enough in the end.
How long has Scotland been slipping away from conservatism and into socialism? I’ve read that Thatcher got about 34% of the Scottish vote in 1979 (with Tory proportion of the vote gradually declining with each election), and I’ve also read that this decline started before Thatcher. I know that Scotland didn’t like monetarism due to its refusal to subsidize Scotland’s dying manufacturing industry, however, which paints a different light.
Americans revolted against their government because of what it did do (and you could say they will soon revolt because of its actions), and that seems to be the case for Ireland as well (but the radicalized elements of the IRA had enormous influence from 1922 to 1969, so I wouldn’t use Ireland as an example of a country which began to slide away from radicalism once it gained its independence). The Scottish “yes” voters, on the other hand, are complaining about Westminster inaction, such as its refusal to make college free and alleged privatization of the NHS. It is true that the Scottish nationalists adopt anti-tax rhetoric, making their platform supply-side (low taxes, high spending), but the result of the adoption of supply side economics eventually leads to either higher taxes or collapse, since politicians will never cut government spending if left to their own devices (and the welfare state has been consistently popular in Scotland).
Because of that, I have a hard time believing that Scotland will be willing to get rid of their welfare state. A yes vote could be a valuable learning experience for them, but it would also be painful. If the Scottish nationalist parties were right wing, independence would be clearly good for Scotland (since Westminster is indeed Leftist and a lover of high taxes), but the nationalist movements there have been left wing and there’s nothing other than the rantings of a few paranoid leftists to suggest that they will change.
Now commentators are saying that turnout is very high, possibly a record.
They said that higher turnout, particularly over 80%, was expected to favor the Yes campaign - but nobody can know at such levels.
Norway has twice the oil reserves of Scotland with roughly the same population. Plus, a very large already accumulated oil wealth fund that can’t be replicated by Scotland.
Norway has no equivalent of the Scottish division between the Catholic Highlands/Hebrides and the Presbyterian Lowlands. The Laplanders/Sami People are a tiny tiny fraction of the Norwegian population.
Norwegian Social Democrats don’t have the visceral hatred of the wealthy and desire to destroy the upper class. They just want the money to support a cradle to grave welfare state. For the Scottish Left, that is just one goal.
bump
I’ve been thinking that the NO vote will win.
The Scots, like the French Quebecers (sp?), are alike in that they like to moan and complain about how no one ever pays attention (more money, more autonomy, etc) to them - when, in fact, in the case of Ottawa and London, the opposite has occurred.
But when given the choice, French Quebec rejected (albeit narrowly) independence and so too will likely the Scots. In their worlds, it’s more fun to complain and demand things and not have to concern themselves about how they’re going to pay for it.
It’s NO!
Listen to the media spin.
UK Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11106839/Scottish-independence-referendum-results-live.html
Late YouGov ‘exit poll’ shows Yes 46, No 54
They were outside the government and after the Civil War ended they weren't really a factor in parliamentary politics if I remember correctly. And the socialist dreams of some of the revolutionaries didn't go anywhere in DeValera's Ireland. The Irish government after independence was, so far as I know, rather conservative -- in an Irish way. Now the country's becoming less and less distinctly Irish.
I don't know enough about the specifics of the Scottish case. Just saying that it's unusual for a country to have two strongly left-wing parties. Maybe Argentina qualifies. Once they have to pay for things themselves, rather than expect the English to pay things may change. Then again, if there's still oil money to fund things, it would support your view.
But there should be such a thing as Scotchtoberfest.
I believe that after Irish independence, the IRA was focused on the counties in the North, which remained in the UK.
Scotland would go lock, stock and barrel.
OH Gteat everybody fav hyper Brit reporter Richard Quest from CNN international is on right now
MAN I miss that dude he is back doing this coverage LOL!
I heard around midnight EST.
The greens, socialists are gnashing teeth.
Except the strongest part of the British Labor party is in Scotland. And the vast majority of people in Scotland get their money from the government, in welfare or by working for the government....
Unless there is a huge surge from the north islands - very possible - it is over. No wins.
Political unrest very possible.
bttt
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