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No means no

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Derec

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I remember when Quebec had the referendum on possibly leaving Canada. They voted to stay. I have ever since wondered when the rest of Canada would have our turn to vote if we want them.
 
I suspect a lot of people voted 'No', not so much from a desire to remain British, but because the details of how an independent Scotland would work were so uncertain. The question - "Should Scotland be an independent country?" - may have inspired a 'Yes', had it been clear what form independence would actually take - but with so many important questions left open, a 'Yes' vote may have seemed, to many, as too much of a blank cheque for the Nationalists.

The Scottish people need to get together and work out exactly what they want their country to be (rather than just being asked what they DON'T want it to be); a vote at the end of that discussion would, I think, be more sensible and more likely to get up than a vote at the beginning of the debate, that is likely to be taken by some as an endorsement of any and all possible outcomes.

A 'Yes' vote from a person who envisages an independent Scotland outside the EU, with its own currency and central bank, is a very different thing from a 'Yes' vote from a person who sees an independent Scotland as an EU member state using the Euro as its currency, for example - but politicians taking either of those positions would have declared a 'Yes' victory as a mandate for their platform.

The planning needs to come first, with the vote at the end - probably amongst a number of different options, rather than just a straight yes/no choice.

The Scots are mostly too canny to write a blank cheque for their politicians; but only by 1,914,187 votes to 1,539,920 (with the 190,778 votes from the Highland council region still to be declared). When 45% of voters would take anything as long as it isn't being part of the UK, that is not exactly a clear victory for the unionists.
 
Can we stop thinking in terms of which countries we don't like? It's not very helpful.
 
I don't know. I think it's more that polls tend to overstate change. Then again, you'd have thought that pollsters would be aware of that, and correct to compensate. But the voices of those who don't support independence and live north of the border were clearly not being heard as clearly as those who do. The coverage seemed to be Scottish independence seekers versus English people who didn't want them to go.
 
bilby said:
I suspect a lot of people voted 'No', not so much from a desire to remain British, but because the details of how an independent Scotland would work were so uncertain. The question - "Should Scotland be an independent country?" - may have inspired a 'Yes', had it been clear what form independence would actually take - but with so many important questions left open, a 'Yes' vote may have seemed, to many, as too much of a blank cheque for the Nationalists.

The Scottish people need to get together and work out exactly what they want their country to be (rather than just being asked what they DON'T want it to be); a vote at the end of that discussion would, I think, be more sensible and more likely to get up than a vote at the beginning of the debate, that is likely to be taken by some as an endorsement of any and all possible outcomes.

A 'Yes' vote from a person who envisages an independent Scotland outside the EU, with its own currency and central bank, is a very different thing from a 'Yes' vote from a person who sees an independent Scotland as an EU member state using the Euro as its currency, for example - but politicians taking either of those positions would have declared a 'Yes' victory as a mandate for their platform.

The planning needs to come first, with the vote at the end - probably amongst a number of different options, rather than just a straight yes/no choice.

The Scots are mostly too canny to write a blank cheque for their politicians; but only by 1,914,187 votes to 1,539,920 (with the 190,778 votes from the Highland council region still to be declared). When 45% of voters would take anything as long as it isn't being part of the UK, that is not exactly a clear victory for the unionists.
Click to expand...

Best analysis of the whole thing I've seen anywhere.
 
I guess the next step is for Alex Salmond to see if he recognizes the symbol that this no actually means yes.
 
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