Scotland

My ancestors came from Scotland. It bothers me that Scots are making such a big decision primarily on emotion. Passion needs to be tempered with sober thought. Here are a few things I hope Scots consider before voting.

• It will be very expensive recreating all the governmental services and bureaucracies that were formerly provided by the UK, including things like embassies, the postal service, the coast guard, defence, trade missions and membership in thousands of international bodies.
• Bigger countries like Russia and the USA like to bully smaller nations. Both Scotland and the diminished UK will be more vulnerable. Smaller nations never do well negotiating trade agreements with large ones. Scotland will have roughly the same clout as Lebanon, Costa Rica or Palestine.
• Scotland will lose its easy access to UK markets and ports.
• Membership in the EU is not automatic. The EU wants to discourage secession generally.
• If you have your own currency, its value could plummet, purely on psychological factors.
• If Scotland gets in financial, political or ecological trouble, there will be no one obligated to lend a hand.
• Oil is a dead end. It will be too scarce and too expensive to use in a decade or so, not to mention concern over greenhouse gas emissions. Scotland cannot rely on it as the ongoing engine of its economy.
• Leaving the UK not only hurts the citizens of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it removes the brake on the UK drifting ever further to the right. Do you really want a crazily right wing country on your southern border, with no influence over it?
• Are you presuming that just because conditions will be different they will necessarily be better. Are you sure you are not leaping out of the frying pan into the fire? Particularly consider unemployment.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)