It is wise to be skeptical about the Scottish independence stuff. One is the polling showed the “No” vote winning handily. The funny thing about polls is the first ones tend to be right or at least close to right. The other reason is that it is hard to leave and there’s no obvious benefit. If sticking with the UK keeps the welfare checks coming, that vote’s not changing. If sticking with the UK secures the business interests, then nationalism is not changing those minds either.
But, here we are a little over a week out and they say the “Yes” vote is now in the lead.
THE YES CAMPAIGN is ahead in the Scottish referendum battle for the first time, according to a poll, amid signs of infighting among senior figures backing the union.
The YouGov research for the Sunday Times found 51% supported independence, compared to 49% who wanted to remain in the UK.
The results are the latest evidence of a dramatic surge for the Yes Scotland campaign, which has seen the gap between the sides – once regularly in double digits – vanish in a matter of months.
The YouGov poll showed the Yes vote increasing by four points, while No dropped by the same number.
The headline figures exclude those who would not vote or are undecided. With those groups included independence was backed by 47% and staying in the UK 45%.
The two point gap is within the margin of error for such polls, meaning the contest, which climaxes on September 18, is effectively too close to call.
That’s not a big lead or even a lead, given the nature of polling, but it has the elites worried all of a sudden. This Bloomberg story says the Brits are now offering bribes to swing the vote their way.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said a program to hand more powers to the Scottish Parliament if Scots vote No, offering Edinburgh more control over taxes, public spending and social policy, will be announced in the “next few days” as the London government responds to the shift in the polls. Talks are still ongoing on the detail of the proposal, his office said.
“It’s clear that Scotland wants more control over the decisions that affect Scotland,” Osborne said in a televised BBC interview. “The timetable for delivering that will be put into effect the moment there is a ‘no’ vote in the referendum. Then Scotland will have the best of both worlds. They will both avoid the risks of separation but have more control over their own destiny, which is where I think many Scots want to be.”
Just in case that’s not enough, the increasingly ridiculous Prime Minister says the Scots will be killed by Muslims if they vote for independence.
Scotland will be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks in a “very dangerous and insecure world” if it votes for independence on Sept. 18, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Being part of a union gives Scots the protective benefits of being part of a larger country, Cameron told reporters at the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s summit in Newport, Wales, yesterday.
“With terrorist threats and other threats, isn’t it better to be part of a United Kingdom that has a top-five defense budget, some of the best intelligence and security services anywhere in the world, that is part of every single alliance that really matters in the world in terms of NATO, the G-8, the G-20, the European Union, a member of the security council of the UN?” Cameron said. “All those networks and abilities to work with allies to keep us safe. Isn’t it better to have those things than separate yourself from them?”
It’s oddly comforting to know that it is not just America with the idiotic scare mongering about Jihadis. It is a safe bet that ISIS does not give a damn about Scotland. They have bigger fish to fry. Further, the civilized world is not going to tell the Scots to pound sand if they ask for help with rooting terrorists out of their golf courses.
The best argument for hoping the Scots vote for independence is all the worst people are against it. The cult of economics swears the gods will reign terror upon us if the Scots vote for independence. All of the major parties in Britain are against it. The kleptocrats in Brussels are against it. When just about every loathsome creature on earth is against something, it is tempting to be for it. Admittedly, that’s not a great reason to be in favor of something.
UKER’s summation sounds informed to my foreign ears. If it is correct, then we might say that separation is, at least, a good thing for England since they will rid themselves of that socialist coalition. And although an ever weakening Scotland may likely only seek harbor elsewhere, we can be sure that the present arrangement was reliably sucking them down. We can see the future in centralization and it is bad. We can’t see the future in separation and we are afraid.
Scotland is apparently free to decide if it wishes to remain part of the UK, though few English people are clear why the Scots get the right to make the decision about the dissolving of the union. Scotland does, through the Barnett formula, get a bigger slice of the UK budget per head of population. They get to do various socialist things like free University education with the extra money they get. The Scots also prop up the increasingly ineffectual and corrupt Labour party with a huge slabs of socialist seats in the House of Commons. If Scotland leaves the… Read more »
Why would the Scots want to remain part of a Great Britain that will soon enough be dominated and run by Muslims? It was bad enough to be under the thumb of the insufferable English, but life would be intolerable for them once England succumbs to its foreign immigrants. If Scottish culture is to survive, it must do so in a free Scotland.
I suspect that a thoughtful person might very well vote yes, but that most of the people likely to vote yes have not the slightest idea what will happen as a result and will deplore the law of unintended consequence. But of course I would vote for the independence of the fifty states, looking forward to the consequences.
Pretty funny, though, Cameron claiming that Scotland will be more vulnerable to terrorists. Presumably they would then be free not to import them.