Independence for Scotland?

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Faldor

Anarchist
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Feb 10, 2002
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Exmouth, Devon, UK
well i thought i'd try and start some intelligent debate as most of my friends from this forum have considered it dull and buggered off.

so without futhor a do...

should scotland be free of British opression or are things cozy?
 
I think it is interesting. And I feel somewhat ashamed because I don't really know all that much about my country. The only thing I know about is the education part of Scotland (me being a student and all). And as far as it goes, it's really different from the English system so there's no need to change anything from that respect. The government pay our fees for us (no problems with top-up fees); the Standard grade and Higher system is so much easier than the GCSE/A levels (Kinda means you are all more qualified than us... but I didn't say that.); we have guidance teachers at school (I don't know if you have them now but I didn't when I went to school in England). I don't suppose it's all that different by way of tax and such like. The only thing that is a problem is the law enforcement between countries as people can move from either country and start a fresh crime spree. And saying that, if anything, they should be brought together to fight this and widen durisdiction.

OK... I have to look into this more because I have no more knowledge about the goings on in my country. 🙁
 
You would have to post this when i'm not online much!

Already we have devolution, we have our own education, courts and parliament system (with limitations to certain degree's of crime. E.g rape, both England and Scotland have the same penalties for it - I would imagine its the same in Wales and NI). It is of popular belief that the Scottish hate the English, and some kids are raised that way. I believe that there is good and bad everywhere so its unfair to place a label on someone because of their nationality.

I do have some pet peeves. When it comes to sport. Ok so we are not the greatest, but it annoys me when they take off good tv shows to play England games up here in Scotland, it is not our country so why should we have to watch it. A lot of it, in my opinion has to do with the media, the way they treat the two countries. And if I have to hear about that World Cup win back in the 60's I think i'll scream.

The main thing that gets to me though is how some foreigners class the UK as just being England. Prime example being at Justin Timerlakes first European tour, his tour manager did not book gigs in Scotland as he did not even think it was in the UK!!!

With regards to national anthems up here, we do not go by 'God Save The Queen'. We use 'Flower of Scotland' which most of us will only know the first verse for.

So before anyone misreads into my post in anyway. I do not hate the English, or England, i'm down there quite a lot and most of my friends and family are from there. When we were in the states when I was a kid a waitress kept on calling us English, and my dad would say Scottish, she asked what the difference was. The way I tend to explain it is like this. If you are Canadian, would you like to be called American? Or if you are Australian would you like to be called a New Zealander?

When asked for my nationality on a form or by someone I always say Scotland or Scottish, but of course I have a British passport.
 
Well, to Hollywood, Irish and Scottish are interchangeable, which is a real shame, because your accents are way cooler. What Scotland really needs to forge its own internationally recognised identity is a national superhero, and a good PR campaign. "Scotland! Not part of England!" might be a good place to start.

As for independence from Britain... I'm not sure about the Scottish economy... could you afford it?
 
Faith said:
I do have some pet peeves. When it comes to sport. Ok so we are not the greatest, but it annoys me when they take off good tv shows to play England games up here in Scotland, it is not our country so why should we have to watch it. A lot of it, in my opinion has to do with the media, the way they treat the two countries. And if I have to hear about that World Cup win back in the 60's I think i'll scream.

The main thing that gets to me though is how some foreigners class the UK as just being England. Prime example being at Justin Timerlakes first European tour, his tour manager did not book gigs in Scotland as he did not even think it was in the UK!!!

With regards to national anthems up here, we do not go by 'God Save The Queen'. We use 'Flower of Scotland' which most of us will only know the first verse for.

When asked for my nationality on a form or by someone I always say Scotland or Scottish, but of course I have a British passport.
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Oh, who can forget that stupid world cup thing. Noone will let us! Lord, it's a nightmare. I have to say the same for any football though. I hate it. But it makes more sense to show Scottish games than English games. English football hooligans are worse than Rangers or Celtic fans.

I use "Flower of Scotland" too. Not because I'm scottish but because I like it better. And I know all of it.

I always say I'm British because I'm half English and half Scottish. And I don't hate either country. I love Scotland because it is my home and has been for 9 years now. But I love England as well, because I was born there and a lot of my friends and family live there too.

I have to say that when I first moved here there was a lot of to-do about my accent and I got picked on because I was English. It hurt a lot because I never would have said a bad word about this Country. I love it and, like I said, it's my home.

I think, however, that we have a lot of independence as a country and it wouldn't hurt us to become even more independent. Although, I don't think it would do us any harm to stay the way we are.
 
Jill_Valentine said:
Well, to Hollywood, Irish and Scottish are interchangeable, which is a real shame, because your accents are way cooler. What Scotland really needs to forge its own internationally recognised identity is a national superhero, and a good PR campaign. "Scotland! Not part of England!" might be a good place to start.

As for independence from Britain... I'm not sure about the Scottish economy... could you afford it?
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Well considering the amount they spent on our new Parliament building I doubt it...there was nothing wrong with the old one! Hey I know lets waste nearly half a billion pounds on a hideous looking building at the bottom of the Royal Mile...keeping in mind that Edinburgh castle is at the top of the Royal Mile....big hill. So of course our lovely weather led to floods in the basement just before the SMP's were to move in...genius!!

I love the Irish accent myself Jill, but quite a lot of Scots are half Irish and half Scottish from the potato famine and they moved over. My mothers family are O'Hara's.

Regarding what elmo said about football hooligans, the representation of the english ones is more in the media than the Scots, but personally there is no way i'd go near a stadium when an old firm game is playing.
 
Faith said:
Well considering the amount they spent on our new Parliament building I doubt it...there was nothing wrong with the old one! Hey I know lets waste nearly half a billion pounds on a hideous looking building at the bottom of the Royal Mile...keeping in mind that Edinburgh castle is at the top of the Royal Mile....big hill. So of course our lovely weather led to floods in the basement just before the SMP's were to move in...genius!!
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Fantastic! A shame we never got footage of SMPs in chest high waders...

I love the Irish accent myself Jill, but quite a lot of Scots are half Irish and half Scottish from the potato famine and they moved over. My mothers family are O'Hara's.
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They better have a Scarlett. It's expected dammit. Scottish accent is way cooler. I work with a Scottish dude, happens to be a berk, but I could listen to him talk about telecoms masts all day... The Irish accent... no matter how soberly or eloquently one speaks, one always sounds drunk. I dunno which came first, the booze or the accent, but even I can't take it seriously, and I have it.

The reason I ask about the economy is that I'm sort of reminded of Northern Ireland. A lot of barmy republicans want it as part of the Republic, but the fact is, economically, if that would happen it would ruin both the North and South. While it's true that a large part of the "running costs" of the North are security related, the figure comes in at something insane (terms of billions of pounds) which is currently covered by the UK. So while it may be a point of pride to claim independence, would it come at the cost of recession?
 
Faldor said:
you said Berk!

your my new favourite poster!

EDIT: even better than Pointy and he can drive a car!
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Dammit! "Berk" - that's all it takes. I say "berk" all the time, honest (just not online 😉)

Actually that's not quite true, my cursing tends to be of a more "industrial" nature these days - I blame quitting smoking and imbecilic managers at work😉
 
Berk berk berk...na na na... berk berk berk... favorite poster... berk berk berk...(Does dance of poster popularity)

Oh yeah... something about Scotland?
 
Mr. Pointy
Mr. Pointy
thrrrpppp!! :P :)
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