Many of you don't know this but I used to live in Scotland. It surprised me to hear this week that there is real discussion going on about a referendum on Scottish Independence, with the ruling Scottish National Party (who control the Scottish Parliament) wanting to wait until 2010 for a referendum on the issue while the Labour Party (Scottish division) are pressuring for an earlier referendum when there is less chance of independence being voted for. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7389459.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7387669.stm

So, what do I think on the issue? 

I'm an Englishman who spent 15 months living in Edinburgh at about the time that Scotland was granted its own Parliament 10 years ago. I was only a child (or "wean&quot at the time. There is a lot of bitterness towards the English, not so far as abusive racism, no one gets attacked for being English, and its still fairly friendly, more like a rivalry but entirely one-way. I think if the Scottish people want independence then they should be granted it. 

So what would the effects be on the remaining UK countries. Economically, a large proportion of the UK's oil comes from pipelines in the North Sea to Scotland. Apart from that I'm not entirley aware of the costs. The Westminster Parliament would be extremely different. In England there were actually Tory voters than Labour at the last election, but because of the Scottish voters Labour remained in power. It is probably the case that the next election will go to the bastard theiving Tories anyway, but without Scotland they would win by a long way. Wales, is more inclined to voting Labour, although they too are prone to voting Nationalist (Plaid Cymru), Liberal Democrat, and as of the recent local elections the Tories are for the first time getting a look in there. Northern Ireland will probably remain the shithole that it is, it has its own party system with none of the mainland parties getting a look in. The West Country, particularly Cornwall (technically part of England but with its own language, flag and "national" identity) would vote for the Liberal Democrats as they always do, it wouldn't affect much at all, they don't have many constituencies due to the small population size.

I'm not a massive fan of the Labour government, but I would much rather have them in charge than some upper class, free market, pseudo-Green, Eton boys. If Scotland gets independence we're fucking screwed simply because of the changes to the electoral system. They'll remain having the same fairly progressive politics that is lacking in the Westminster Parliament. They also have free higher education for Scottish students. Hell! I'm moving to Scotland, I want my kids to be Scottish!!