Michael Snyder
Scottish voters finally have the opportunity to fulfill William Wallace's dream of a Scotland that is free and independent of England forever. All they have to do is vote yes next week.
Without a doubt, a divorce from the British would be quite messy, and life would probably be more comfortable in the short-term if Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom. But hopefully the people of Scotland are looking beyond short-term concerns.
Today, the United Kingdom is a horribly repressive Big Brother police state that is dominated by bureaucratic control freaks. You can hardly even sneeze without violating some kind of law, rule or regulation. And the London banking establishment is at the very heart of the debt-based global financial system which is enslaving so much of the planet. Scotland finally has a chance to get free from all of this. All it is going to take is a yes vote on Scottish independence.
It looks like it is going to be an incredibly close vote. Recent polls show that the result could go either way. Needless to say, this is causing the British establishment to freak out quite a bit.
For example, a couple of large banks have attempted to sway the vote during this past week by publicly declaring that they will have to move to England if the vote for Scottish independence is successful...
The Royal Bank of Scotland announced Thursday that it is making contingency plans to move its legal incorporation to England in the event of a “yes” vote. In addition, Lloyds Banking Group said it had made arrangements to establish “new legal entities” in England should voters in Scotland decide to sever ties with Britain.And there have been lots of other warnings of "economic disaster" for Scotland if it does not remain part of the United Kingdom...
Standard Life, the pensions company, disclosed that it was planning to move part of its business to England to protect its customers, while BP and Shell backed expert predictions that North Sea oil will have all but run out by 2050. It also emerged that nearly $2-billion has flowed out of U.K. equity funds in the past two months amid heightened uncertainty over what separation would mean for the economy.Honestly, it is probably true that there would be some short-term economic disruptions for Scotland.
But in the long run the Scottish would probably be in quite good shape considering how much of the North Sea oil they would own. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Bloomberg article...
The discovery of North Sea riches in the 1970s planted the seed of modern-day Scottish nationalism as supporters of independence cried “It’s our oil!”What most British politicians won't tell you is that it would probably be the British that would suffer the most economically in the short-term and in the long-term.
Four decades later, nothing will be more important to the economic future of Scotland than the oil industry should the country vote to end the 307-year union with the rest of the U.K.
Reserves of oil and gas would be split, possibly along the so-called median line, already used to allocate fishing rights. The division would hand the Scots about 96 percent of annual oil production and 47 percent of the gas, according to estimates for 2012 by the University of Aberdeen’s Alex Kemp and Linda Stephen cited by the Scottish government.
In fact, if there is a yes vote for Scottish independence it is being projected that the value of the British pound will fall substantially and we could see a "negative shock" in British financial markets...
Adam Memon, the head of economic research at the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “The principal immediate threat would be to sterling and the stability of the financial markets. The recent selloff is a mere warning of what may come if the Scots actually do vote for independence.”
Threadneedle Investments said: “Given the constitutional and economic uncertainties attached to a potential break-up of the UK, a vote for independence would be likely to deliver a negative shock to UK financial assets and lead to meaningful currency weakness.”And actually, the Scottish are not going nearly far enough with this vote for independence. For example, according to Yes Scotland a newly-independent Scottish government would continue to have allegiance to the Queen...
The Scottish Government’s proposal is that the Queen remains Head of State in Scotland, in the same way as she is currently Head of State in independent nations such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
This would be the position for as long as the people of Scotland wished our country to remain a monarchy.Speaking as an American, let me say that getting rid of the British monarchy has worked out exceptionally well for us.
Hopefully the Scottish people will make a similar decision sooner rather than later.
If Scotland does indeed end up voting for independence, it could give momentum to similar movements all over Europe.
Just this week, hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets in Barcelona to demand the right to vote on independence from Spain...
Thousands of Catalans have rallied in Barcelona, Spain, demanding the right to hold a referendum on independence.
Participants, waving Catalan flags and wearing the flag's red and yellow colours, stood in a V-shape formation, indicating their desire for a vote.
Protesters were energised by Scotland's forthcoming independence referendum - and many also waved the Scottish flag.
The regional government has called a referendum for 9 November. The Spanish government says the vote is illegal.Could we end up seeing a number of new nations emerging from the chaos that is about to engulf Europe?
This is clearly not what the establishment wants. In fact, George Soros says that "this is the worst possible time" for Scottish independence.
That alone is a really good reason to vote yes.
Personally, I am rooting for the Scottish people on this one. I truly hope that they are finally able to win their freedom.
The people of Scotland have been pushed around by the British for centuries.
Now they finally have a chance to stand up to the tyranny of London.
They finally have a chance to get free.
Let us hope that they take it.
This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.
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