With the Scottish referendum coming up possibly in Autumn 2014, I guess it’s about time I spent a bit of my hard got leisure time to actually look at the issues and what is likely to affect me the most.
My decision and how I vote in the future is unlikely to be done on the back of politics and political allegiances. My vote is most likely going to be on the strength of what the heck I am going to have in my pocket at the end of it all. If it looks like it’s going to cost us money as a family, well then I’m going to vote no.
My problem is that I don’t know enough about it to make an informed decision and the biased stuff I see in newspapers isn’t going to make that any easier for the lay people like me to actually make a decision on.
Considerations for me in voting are likely to be around these issues :
- Do we keep free prescriptions.
- Do we keep free university places for the length of time my children could apply for them.
- Will we have to pay more tax?
- Will council tax rise further than the UK average would have?
- Will our disabled kids be allowed to get legal protection for education like the English do with statements?
- Will we stay in the EU?
- Do we change immigration rules and if so, how much is that going to cost versus the cost of supporting non working immigrants. If they want to change it and it costs more to police and try to contain, I’m for the status quo with the rest of the UK, until our whole little island decides what it’s going to do.
The questions coming out around statements re staying in Europe and having to reapply and perhaps being forced to join the Euro don’t make me any easier about the future choice we have to make. What about signing up to the First Strike Nuclear Alliance but banning nuclear weapons from Scotland. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical if it’s true.
I want to believe in Salmond as the Cameron / Clegg coalition in at the moment does not have any respect from me, and I’m not too convinced about the Labour leadership either.
My thing is that I WANT to like the SNP, but they aren’t making it easy and I’m not finding them trustworthy.
I WANT to keep the status quo of the benefits of having our Government in Edinburgh and staying in the UK, but if I’ll be better off with a division of country, that’s going to be a big pull. It’s all going to be a race to get down to who can let their citizens have the most pennies in their pockets I suspect.
Yes there will be plenty of worthies debating the political issues, and I might even try and keep up on occasion, but I suspect most will vote with their pockets in the long run.
The thing is, you can be pro-indy but not like the SNP or Salmond. I would like to see what Labour, Tories, etc could offer the people of Scotland if they had to make up policies just for Scotland.
(I’d also look forward to Alastair Darling being a future PM/FM of Scotland)
The 2014 vote is not a vote for a party, it’s a vote for independence. The vote after that – 2016 if all goes well – is the vote for the party and the shape of Scotland afterwards.
Thanks for your point of view. Yes I agree that is very important to distinguish between Independence and the political party in residence for Scotland. I’m not sure the demarcation line on that is very clear though. Perhaps that is deliberate.
It makes the argument for Independence even more difficult as any party could really be in power and what would they do if they were head of an Independent Scotland?
Not wanting to sound pedantic but Scotland is already devolved i.e. has devolution, as do Wales and N.Ireland. The referendum in 2014 is for independence…
Thanks Maria – that will teach me to write a post in the early hours of the morning.