Out of Pod Experience

Speaking as an American, can we do this to Florida and California? Florida is just ten kinds of ****, while California is the single most wasteful, puerile society in the history of mankind.

This Welshman is happy to stay part of the UK. Plaid Cymru are a bunch of idiots.

We need a shifty eyes emote.

This shall suffice.

I'm voting yes. Just wish that Nicola Sturgeon went up against Alistair Darling... she's a pitbull.

When is the vote?

Now on a more serious note: whatever you think of Scotland vote, it is a hundred times better than the indescribable situation with independentism in Catalonia.

Yea the MoD have no interest in handing over a squadron of typhoons. Also have it on good account that they also wont be handing over any challenger 2s, warriors or even scimitars.

I have always wondered why nobody has ever questioned Salmond to any degree on this subject given how important it is.

This is something that annoys me hugely. Salmond is a huge power hungry troll.

Everyone that asks questions about defence, gets the standard nationalist treatment, of being told they're wrong, incompetent, lying and a coward, for not believing in the vision.

The online nationalists are the worst: When the 1st Sea Lord of the Admiralty said that independence would almost certainly mean no ships being built in Scotland for the RN, and that it would make defence of the home nations far more difficult and costly, again, he gets accused of being wrong, incompetent, lying and a coward, who knows nothing about the subject, by the online nationalists who simply do not understand that no country buys warships from abroad if it can help it. National Security.

A warship, a frontline one, such as the currently building Type 45 destroyers and Type 26 frigates, incorporate a number of electronics systems (which is a substantial amount of modern warship costs), the design and capabilities of which are confidential, for good reason. In many cases, those designs are subject to Official Secrets Acts and the like. The nationalist vision seems to think that the rUK would be happy to be handing important national secrets - the exact designs of modern frontline warships, to a foreign country.
I'm not sure, but I think that when the UK purchased some F-4 Phantoms, that the Phantoms were delivered with American made export model radars, but these were then replaced by British made radars, which the Americans never had access to.
That's the kind of model that would exist for building warships for export. Fitted for, but not with, systems that the builders never have access to. And when you start down that route, then... the rUK could buy hulls from almost any country, and fit them with their own electronics. The Clyde shipyards would then be on a far different playing field than current.

In addition to this, one of the major things about defence that the nationalists say, is that an independent Scotland would "no longer be part of illegal wars", and that this would protect Scotland from external threats, such as jihadi terrorists.
But they still want to build the weapons to fight those illegal wars, and Scotland is already at risk from those terrorists, because Scotland is still "the West".

But, if you question the independence defence policy, then you are No True Scotsman.



Did you know, that the current Scottish Government is far more centralised, and exerts far more power over local councils, than anything that the Scottish Office ever did during the Thatcher years ?

That is, the Scottish Government has more power to interfere with and overturn decisions and policies made by the local councils, than anything that ever existed prior to devolution.

The Scottish Government intervened in a planning application for a wind farm, that had been turned down by the local council, and ordered a war memorial moved, so that the wind farm could go ahead. As an example.

There are other incidents - the debacle about Donald Trump's Aberdeenshire resort for example. National Government intervention, to force the development to go ahead. Threats of using Compulsory Purchase orders, to allow the development, and so on. Compulsory Purchase is a power not to be used lightly, it is intended for projects of national benefit, and there is Salmond's cabinet using it to force the development of a luxury golf resort.

Elements of the yes campaign, advocate taking photographs of no campaigners, photographing anyone wearing a no campaign badge, making notes of where no voters live and work, and creating dossiers of this sort of information.

East German Stasi style.