Our tiny little home country is parading about on the world stage these days. Even American news outlets seem to be aware of the upcoming independence referendum in the land of haggis and bagpipes. As usual, the news jesters seem to be doing the best job of covering this story. Here’s John Oliver’s take:
Everywhere we look we see signs declaring simply “Yes” (pro-independence) or “No, thanks” (anti-independence). Edinburgh is supposedly quite strongly in the No camp, but the more passionate Yes campaigners have made their presence in this city quite known. This week international news crews are also swarming about the capital, with each walk down the Royal Mile likely to turn into a man-on-the-street interview.
We can’t vote, although many foreigners who live here can (as can 16-year-olds, the voting age having been lowered just for this referendum). It’s more than a little nerve-wracking, all this uncertainty. We don’t know how an independent Scotland would treat our visas, and all the debate around which currency Scotland would use (Stephen Colbert has suggested slabs of peat moss stamped with Sean Connery’s face) is extra worrisome when we think about the big pound-denominated mortgage we just took out.
I honestly don’t know whether we (or anyone else) would be better or worse off in an independent Scotland. Over the past months I’ve tried to be convinced by the arguments for secession, but I just can’t get there. Yes campaigners have said that an independent Scotland will look a lot like (tiny, oil-rich) Norway, and while I love to visit Norway, I wouldn’t want to live there. I want to live here.
The polls this week are showing an outcome that’s too close to call. Will Scotland wake up Friday morning and go back to business as usual, or will it be the beginning of a long separation negotiation? (Actual independence wouldn’t happen until early 2016 at the earliest.) Either way, we’re going out drinking Friday night.
Oh dear, yeah, the referendum. Luckily I will get to vote as an EU citizen and I’ll be voting No. I feel similarly about you, I think in theory it is very easy to promise x and y but reality would be quite different. The UK could do with a few improvements, but that could be handled for the whole country, not just Scotland. I do actually think that there are probably more No voters in Edinburgh but the Yes camp is just so much louder (and a little too extreme as well, although our neighbour who has a Yes sign in his window had his window smashed in a while ago).
With the polls being as close as they are I am actually quite glad we have yet to buy a house / take out a mortgage, as I have no idea what we would do if it ended up with a yes majority. N. is not Scottish and neither am I, not sure we would want to stay here in the long run then.
Glad you will be exercising your right to vote, Viv.
We’ve also been talking about whether we would stay here long-term in the event of a Yes vote (and whether we were being short-sighted by buying a flat when we did, although we do love the new place). So many unknowns at the moment.
My husband and I have been fascinated with this topic here in the US. We can get SkyNews here but is seems like we are not hearing the heart of the matter. Maybe the media is avoiding discussing it to be politically correct, but we never hear WHY it would be better – or worse – for Scotland to be independent. Also, what would happen to all the Scots working in England and the EU? No one mentions EU membership here. Is it assumed that Scotland would get EU membership automatically? What if the Scots all had to get work visas to work in England or the EU? Anyway, we have so many questions! We recently heard that all the Scots not currently living in Scotland are not allowed to vote on the referendum. If I were a Scot living / working in London that would make me very angry! The American term Disenfranchised Voter springs to mind. I have yet to hear what the pros are for independence. It seems like an expensive mistake to me. What have you heard?
It’s interesting to hear more about how it was covered in the US. Now we’ll never know how EU membership would have played out, but we were being told that Scotland would have to apply and would have to commit to using the euro (as do all new members now). Spain in particular was interested in making it sound like EU membership wouldn’t be easy or automatic for Scotland.
We were also told that there would be free movement of people between Scotland and England, no border checks, no work permits necessary, etc.
We know several Scots who live outside of Scotland who were also quite unhappy that they were not allowed to vote.
Independence could have been a very expensive mistake indeed, but luckily now we will never have to find out. This morning’s results came as a relief, at least in our household.
Thank you for sharing the Oliver clip. I followed the referendum and was a bit surprised at the result. I hope the Scots achieve some of their objectives.