On Sunday, June 23, 2013 2:24:59 PM UTC-4, Ophelia wrote:
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> Call it a rant if you wish, I was asked my opinion and I gave it. We have
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> lived in Scotland for many years and my work during that time was as a
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> Curator of Social History in the Scottish Museum Service, so I don't need
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> you to tell me about the history of this country. Of course it is a
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> beautiful country with a fascinating history, much (though far from all) of
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> which Scots can be proud, however, none of that has any relevance to the
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> current discussion!
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> Scotland has not been 'exploited by Westminster, in fact it has been
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> supported and subsidised by the rest of the UK. The exploration and eventual
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> tapping of the oil fields was done under the centralised government and
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> funding while Scotland has been part of the UK. It has never been
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> 'independent' during that time and all income, taxation, etc. went to the
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> treasury and payments for all resources throughout the UK, including
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> Scotland, for defence, administration, and all other centralised services
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> were paid from the treasury. The devolved Scottish parliament was not
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> established until 1998 and did not first meet until 12 May 1999 whereas the
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> modern period of oil and gas exploration and extraction began in the late
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> 1960s. As a unified nation under central government with no independent
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> Scottish administration at the time, or now (fully) for that matter, natural
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> resources extracted in that time can in no way be considered as belonging
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> to, or therefore stolen from, any one part of the UK. The UK does not have
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> the same political structure as the USA with independent 'states' and a
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> 'federal' government, it is, still a UNITED kingdom, until recently with no
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> separated governance in the major parts.
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>
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> I am fully aware of the alternative views but they are mainly based on
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> romanticism, ill-informed prejudice and the largely disproven wishful
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> thinking of self-serving power-hungry politicians, all of which are just as
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> misplaced as your own ignorant utterances.
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> May I ask how long you have lived here? I take instruction only from
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> resident Scots who actually know what they are talking about e.g. Shelia
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> Viemeister in this group!
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I lived in Edinburgh in the late 1970s.

Regarding Scotland being subsidized before oil was discovered, this is true.. However, the reason for this necessity was because there was almost no investment in the country during this period. At the same time there was a major investment in south east England. It was also during this time that people with regional accents (especially strong ones like Scotland) were ridiculed. In this atmosphere it was almost impossible to attract investment to Scotland. This is one reason why so many Scots left the country.

I am not familiar with today's NSP. Back in the 1970s the quality of their policies was poor, and without any Scottish legislature they were really a fringe group. I am not familiar with their policies or quality today.

I have been out of UK politics for many years. However, I do think it would be very unfortunate if Scotland became completely independent. However, the UK is so split today, (London and the south east is almost a separate country), that there is no longer danger of the country being split into very different factions. It has already happened.

http://www.richardfisher.com