Radio 2 in the Park 2024

[Viv]

If you're Scottish at all, and care about OUR future, please join in the campaign !!

www.yesscotland.net

V for VICTORY !! It's all possible !!

You can also volunteer, and do stuff (such as leafleting). I did it for the Lib Dems some time back (God only knows why), but it's easy to do, you get to chat to people and get their views, etc., as well as getting involved in YOUR local community !!

www.yesscotland.net/volunteer

[cxx666]

Well as a proud BRIT, I can assure you that I will be voting no and I don't care who knows it.

Totally against this unnecessary, stupid and airy fairy fantasy that Salmond and the rest of the SNP (Seperatist National Party) are trying to force on everyone.

[Viv]

O. This isn't a fantasy. the snp won in ayrshire, and have already taken over the council. we DO have the cash to go it alone, get out from tory rule and give our younger generations a chance.

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

Maybe we should get out of the EU first before we start dividing the UK back up? Just a thought.

[Viv]

You live under a government currently obsessed with taxing pasties and sausage rolls, and you expect something rational?! also, our current government have to borrow more and more to deal with all the benefit claims at the mo. i think cxx666 should see reason. the snp have a lot better plans for employment throughout scotland.

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

No I expect nothing rational from them, hence the smear campaign that was No To AV, where they spent more time lying about the opposing campaign 'costing the taxpayer money' when funds were independently raised and also not focussing on the benefits of the system they were campaigning for (which is what Yes To AV did).

Great Britain? Great big f***ing mess thanks to recent governments, more like.

[Viv]

Is it the mess it appears though? why is there cash for wars at the drop of a hat, running into billions. or... Yes, here we go again... Eurovision.......... sure the biggest mugs here are ourselves

[Viv]

Unlike cxx666 i am NOT a proud brit. i feel quite embarassed to be in the uk.

[Harkinson]

Though if Scotland became independent, we'd probably have our own Eurovision entrant.. Might spark more interest in the contest then.

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

Yeah, but would you really want to have to enter The Krankies or find another equivalent to Dedwood?

[Viv]

Yeh. Someone scottish could perform beside a tower of irn bru.

[Viv]

Yeh. Someone scottish could perform beside a tower of irn bru.

[DC]

william wallace for prime minister, die you stupid english bastards! (and so on)

but seriously when a country would rather take a big risk and go it alone, it goes to show how bad this coalition government really must be.

[cxx666]

Unlike cxx666 i am NOT a proud brit. i feel quite embarassed to be in the uk.

We couldn't be more opposite on this one, I don't assosciate myself with scotland. I was born in Edinburgh but I take great offence to being called scottish and always correct people if this happens. I'm in a very lucky position where I am able to describe myself as either scottish or British and I choose the latter.

The thing I find very concerning about all of this is that the seperatists are meant to be campaigning to convince people this is a good idea, yet it seems to be that the ones who are anti independence are having to point out all the problems it could cause, the huge expenses, how things like defence and the like are handled, even what would happen with currency. I don't pretend to know all the answers, but I see no reason why things can't just stay as they are and let everyone get on with trying to come out of recession. I genuinely believe a lot of this has about because of this pathetic anti-English mentality we have here, I've seen it for years and its nothing short of a ridiculous chip on certain people's shoulders. You can call yourself scottish if you wish, but that doesn't mean Great Britain/UK has to be ripped up. I like the idea that I am able to roam free around the UK as and when I like, I don't want this to be taken away from me either.

On a positive note, I'm good friends with an SNP voter who has said that while he likes the idea and doesnt identify himself as British, he will be voting no as he doesnt think its in anyones best interests. I can only hope that more people think like this and Salmond and his vermin don't manage to brainwash people into thinking this is actually a positive thing.

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

this pathetic anti-English mentality we have here, I've seen it for years and its nothing short of a ridiculous chip on certain people's shoulders. .

Ugh, tell me about it, it's a lot like the anti-German feeling by some racist idiots here who are either hating Germany for events SIXTY years ago, or worse hating most other countries because in their heads they still live in the days of the Empire. All of these are dangerous mindsets.

[Viv]

Yep. Here we go... it just HAS to be narrow-minded views. No surprise someone had to come up with this !!

Well, in the case of a large number of people, it is about FINALLY breaking free. NONE of our Governments (past or present) are doing Scotland ANY good. Our unemployment numbers are soaring.

The Conservatives/Lib Dems/Labour are all jumping into bed with each other - Labour, as a party today, is unrecognisable from the working class Labour part of my grandad's time.

As to currency/defence, I shall try and find this out from a local forum (where the same discussion is going on). Actually, even regarding currency, any change would be workable. People in Europe coped with the changes, when people took their own currencies away, and turned them into the Euro.

[Viv]

, but I see no reason why things can't just stay as they are and let everyone get on with trying to come out of recession. I genuinely believe a lot of this has about because of this pathetic anti-English mentality we have here,

The reason things cannot stay as they are is because it is NOT working. You cannot borrow more + more money, and keep expecting others to pay for it. It is like someone using your credit card, and telling YOU to pay all the bills.

Hell, even the Finance Minister in France thinks we, the UK, are a bloody joke. We are.

[Viv]

Isn't the very definition of insanity : doing the same thing over + over, and expecting a different result.

= Cameron/Clegg = insanity.

[Viv]

Here is a lovely piece:

Ian Hamilton QC

"I am 86. Thus I have lived in the United Kingdom for more than a quarter of its existence. My observations on its identity and mine may be of value.

Even in the 1920s and 1930s I always knew I was a Scot. So sure was I of my identity that I never minded being called British or English. If called the latter I just thought they were wrong.

During the war we were all called English. As I grew up I discovered that my petit bourgeois contemporaries thought that there was no Scotland. It had been absorbed into its greater neighbour. Looking back this is not surprising. The union gave us the chance to expand into the great free trade area that became the British empire. We seized that chance. Glasgow was the empire’s second city. We were the workshop of the world.

Seventy years ago it seemed that the price we had paid for the wealth of empire was the loss of our identity as Scots. To be ignorant of who you are is profoundly disturbing. *** England suffers from it badly today. The England of the shires, of Puck of Pook’s Hill, has gone. England is now London.

We have been luckier. We are still us. We blame the loss of our industries on successive English governments not on ourselves. We did nothing. We continued to vote unionist. The enterprise that built the great forges has been lacking. I can tell you where it went. It went to schools like Fettes and Loretto where the enterprise was whipped out of them and they were squeezed into the mould of English gentlemen. They live on in their great-grandfather’s

country estates here in Argyll. The enterprise has gone elsewhere.

We lost our confidence when we lost our empire. Don’t worry. It’s coming back. Even Fred Goodwin, is a sign. Better to gamble and topple a great bank than to live in the suburban inanity of Bearsden. The 1878 failure of the City of Glasgow Bank led to the founding of the great law firm of McGrigor Donald and to the Industrial Exhibition of 1888. McGrigors, as it was laterally called, has now joined up with a great London firm. We Scots are true internationalists and there is no border to our abilities. Failure is the manure of success. The loss of empire followed by the loss of our industries has caused us Scots to look round. Even the great landlords are affronted to think their estates end at the salt seashore. The solum of the seabed to beyond the furthest horizon is still held by England. That is where the next great development will come. We have three quarters of the tidal power of Europe. Oil is pocket money compared to the tides."

Ps: Have to say I have seen more anti-Scottish stuff in English newspapers, than anti-English stuff in our own newspapers.

A nation (which is what Scotland IS) should govern itself.

*** = cxx666

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

Isn't the very definition of insanity : doing the same thing over + over, and expecting a different result.

= Cameron/Clegg = insanity.

Definitely agreed we need to get rid of them two.

[Viv]

Right. Back again after a meeting with what felt like "Nick Clegg Mark II"...

Just want to say Scotland has OIL. This should not be about English v Scottish v Welsh v Irish - found the following from Guardian politics:-

"It is Westminster who has consistently robbed Scotland of resources think oil fish etc all used as pawns in Westminster's quest for power. We send only 59 MPs (of all shades and just 52 post 2013) south - think about it, how's that going to influence Westminster policy out of 650?

@whatshappening writes:

This is the biggest UK political story in a generation.

By the way it could have been all settled by now if:

- The UK gov hadn't covered up the true extent of North Sea oil in the 70s

- The UK gov hadn't fixed the result of the 79 devolution referendum and then renegaded on a promise to provide more powers if there was a "No" vote, meaning there wasn't another referendum on devolution until 1997

- The UK parties in Scotland hadn't blocked the SNP's bill to hold a referendum a couple of years ago while they were still a minority administration

Who would get the oil revenues if Scotland became independent?

Analysis

North Sea oil is the jewel - or rather the thistle - in the crown of an independent Scotland. Countries with "black gold" can go it alone in a way others cannot. This explains the desperation of Greenland to drill in its Arctic waters. It knows a big discovery could provide a pathway to quick economic - and then political - independence from the colonial masters in Denmark. Hence Norway's decision not to join the European Union".

Regarding DEFENCE : Found this:-

"An independent Scotland could apply to join Nato and is likely to seek close military ties with Norway and Denmark to help patrol the northern Atlantic, in a dramatic shake up of the Scottish National party's defence strategy.

Forging a close working relationship with both Scandinavian states is one of the key issues being studied as part of the Scottish government's proposals for a new Scottish defence force, due to be published in November 2013 in its "prospectus" for independence, SNP sources have said in response to the Reality Check series on independence."

[Viv]

It's all possible if people could get over the English v Scotland v Ireland v Wales rubbish.

I For INDEPENDENCE !!

I For INNOVATION !!

I for I am able to STAND ALONE !!

I for INTELLIGENCE !!

And O For OIL !!

www.yesscotland.net

[DC]

what will happen to services provided to scotland from england if they do become a fully independent nation?

for example bbc radio 1, they don't broadcast in southern ireland as far as i know.

i also get the feeling that, as there is a lot of scots who want this to go through based on the fact that they truly believe it would be better for scotland as a whole. which is fair enough. there's just a few involved who just want to 'get one over the english', which is becoming pathetic and should have no bearing on this.

[Viv]

O god. Must find this out as well.

[TheEpicPlum]

I'm half Scottish.

If anyone's interested…