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Having heard with some dismay of the SNP's proposed separation of Scotland from the United Kingdom, I thought I would offer some views on the subject.
There is an article about the subject in the Daily Telegraph (13/05/2011) and I echo some of the writer's opinions. The major thing seems to be, as always, about money. I am puzzled as to how Scotland would intend to earn its revenue considering the £6.5 billion from North Sea oil is only a fraction of the £30 million Scotland currently receives from Central Government. Silicon Valley is now more or less defunct as labour and shipping costs increased over the last 20 years or so, international companies moved out to places such as Poland and the Czech Republic. The traditional defence companies also stopped trading in Scotland, Marconi Space and Defence being but one of them. I realize that there are many smaller companies still operating there; Kwik Fit, Sky, etc., but they still need the large corporations to move in to generate jobs and money.
The Clyde shipyards were in decline until they received the two aircraft carrier orders from Whitehall, so presumably they would be the last ones to be placed there under the grace and favour rules. The rig building industry is also in decline for the North Sea platforms (once built, they last forever!), so not much business to come from there and they would have to compete really hard for overseas platform orders.
Then we come to defence. The SNP have a policy which precludes having a permanent defence force, so the UK defence bases in Scotland would be withdrawn (together with a collapse of the local dependent economies) and transferred South of the border. The police forces in Scotland would have to be self-sufficient and not benefit from central purchasing from the Home Office. Would they also have to institute a Border Protection Agency to prevent illegal immigrants and prohibited imports and exports? The UK would almost certainly create a similar one on the English side of the border, perhaps extending our own BPA.
The Scottish banks, especially the Royal Bank of Scotland, which were subject to bail out by Central Government would also have to repay the loans back to the UK more or less immediately, as the Scottish Parliament did not take any part in that bail out. As a result, England would also lose the international investments held by those banks.
Tourism on both sides of the border would also be seriously affected since freedom of movement across the border may become restricted. Any such restrictions would also affect road transport and rail transport, together with any dependent industries being affected.
Telephone and other communication systems could also be seriously affected North of the border and international agreements would have to be established for it to continue as it does currently.
All in all, the proposal does seem fairly silly, but, Scotland and England have always had an uneasy Unification and with the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament and the growing popularity of the SNP, it could make sense to break away.
Scotland has its own judiciary and legal system. A great pity it does not fund it entirely from its own resources! Until it does so, Whitehall should head up Scotland's judiciary and impose the law for the UNITED Kingdom. There are, already, calls from Scottish leaders for total judicial power to remain with Scotland and to end the link of their judiciary with Whitehall and with UK Parliament.
Now there is a call for a referendum to be held for Scottish independence!
There is also a call by Mr Salmond, for the retention of the Scottish regiments and at least one air force base and a naval base to be retained to form a Scottish Defence force. Is this man totally devoid of common sense; has he not realised that we are forcing redundancies on our armed forces because we are a bit strapped for cash? Will Scotland be able to afford to keep a military force at all? In any case, it was not a long time ago that the SNP were committed to NOT having an armed force in Scotland; they have fought for the closure of the submarine base on the West Coast for quite a number of years. Strangely, though, they have always campaigned to keep the air bases open (was that for local dependent economic reasons?)
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