tombomp:

it’s incredible how near every supporter of a no vote is unbelievably patronising, insulting and really shitty about Scottish people

Went out to the pub with the Scotsman to watch the MLS/Bayern Munich game yesterday, he was all enthusiastic about the referendum. Was a little ticked that the vote wasn’t limited/extended to Scots anywhere, and instead would be among whoever just happened to be living in Scotland, though.

I think it’s a bad idea, I just don’t see where the money’s going to come from. Industry’s for shit still, no City to siphon from directly or lean on for bond issues, and meanwhile you’ve got a population that wants social democracy as if not only Thatcher but Heath never happened. I guess you could compete with Ireland as the English-speaking European nation that can bend over furthest for multinationals, but you’d probably have to scrap and rebuild a lot of Scots law as a lure and that’d sure run against the social democracy/national pride thing.

He thinks it’ll run off North Sea oil, as if that’s forever, as if they’d just inherit it as a matter of principle and proximity nevermind they don’t have any diplomatic chits to trade in to get claims recognized or any navy to keep them enforced. A+ plan there, mate.

BEST case scenario they play Ireland, Norway, and Sweden off each other bidding for Scottish allegiance and access while extracting a begrudging tolerance from the rump UK in return for not stirring up shit in Wales and Norn Iron, take an immediate quality of life hit back towards the ‘80s at least but keep things patched over with national pride while building up labor-intensive specialty and organic agriculture then start moving up the value chain towards exportable expertise and equipment in that sector, maybe some cultural/landscape tourism on the side, stumble their way towards some kind of northern New Zealand.

Worst case scenario they find themselves frozen out in the region and start to fall into Russia’s orbit by process of elimination, NATO pushes destabilization campaigns and reincorporation starts serving as an imperial palingetic-flavored paste to hold together coalitions south of the border.

Middle course, I see most likely, they start off full of starry-eyed wonder, in international booms it looks like the sky’s the limit, in downturns everything always looks about to fall apart but never quite does, they keep grabbing after the big thing that’s going to make it all finally work - green energy, shipping in the newly ice-free Northern seas, some bullshit that can’t even be predicted yet - until the camel’s back is finally broken and they come crawling back hat in hand in a few decades.

How’s that?