I take the times onmy kindle book ( 32 p per day )
yesterdays articles kind of show some of the likely problems and areas that will end up being " compromised " in both of its meanings .
The oil revenues are aparently only ( Hope I get this right ) £ 10.4 billion UK GDP is 142 trillion losing the oil is no big hardship but what will cause dificulties is an independaent scotland having British military and defence situated there.
The reason that the likes of the RAF , navel bases & barracks have been kept there was to give income to the country .. that may have to change.
Woukld the newly independent scotland create their own currency , go Euro or want to keep it British.
apparently some of the financiers and bean crunchers reckon an Independent Scotland would have an international credit rating similar to that of Greece and face the same problems of no body wanting to lend or work with them .
This could have a massive knock on effect of international companies moving out of Scotland to protect their business.
Taxation also rears its ugly head & is not as easy as it first looks.
No one has done the number crunching ( don't let Gordon Brown EX UK PM anywhere near the counting table
) yet. But as the SNP appear to want to raise their own taxes they will have to be exceedingly carefull as to what & how theydo it .
4 milliion Scots of which I would say nearly 35% are non earners will have to dig very deep into their pockets to fund everything . If the tax rate and business taxes are too high businesses that can will head South and if it's too little you will get some incommers if your lucky .
GB might then say well we will / can reduce the levels of tax because we are not suporting Scotland and end up making it a journey south again because businesses are in it for making money not coughing up to support political ideas.
from what I can gather from my Scottish pals and the papers & TV news is that the idea of independence is all nice and fluffy giving all Scots a nice warm glow but the harsh realities of cost have not been considered by many in the SNP and that these need looking at in an intense spot light long before any referendums are held .
I also get the impression that some of the more questioning Scots have seen through the smoke & mirrors of the 30 %5 vote for SNP that Salmond keeps pushing ... It being that many people voted for SNP because the alternatives were not to their liking .& it was much more of a protest vote spit in the eye to Westminister than many care to admit .
, Salmond appears to have taken this 30% as Gospel and thinks he has a mandate in his own right. Come an election /referendum he might well end up as Billy No Mates in the results when people find out that the woolley hat job that was pulled over ther eyes is going to cost them dearly for manymany years to come.
Ths Scottish fishing fleet is already having a big probs with the EEC over byecatch and mesh sizes as welmas other countries fishing in the area around 15,000 jobs depend up on this industry in Scotland alone .
Going independent will either mean having nothing to do with EEC or being their slaves & following their nonsensicsal edicts blindly or having to pay massive daily fines..
Some of my pals who experienced the " Icelandic Cod Wars " have also given this type of view .wrt independence :-
If your going independent you'll need a lot of fishery enforcement vessels and manpower 24/7 which is very very expensive , as you don't have a navy or airforce etc.that you can divert to the task.
I think the Scots people need , indeed deserve a much clearer song sheet long before they sing the SNP's tune or else you'll end up in the crap like the UK is now when Ted Heath took us into the EEC in 1975 &.no one had thought through the machinations of the others .
