How the vote for Scottish Independence could affect your pocketbook if you plan on going to Scotland

Except, of course, that golf courses in Scotland could just raise their prices in "number" - The Old Course was maybe 150 pounds, so maybe it'll just be 185 euros?

Obviously there are many more important implications, but golf-wise, one consequence of the vote - Euro exchange rate is much better than that of the Pound.

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/09/why-golfers-might-care-about-t.html

As someone who has lived most of my life in Quebec, I am very interested in seeing how this referendum unfolds.

It's going to be tight. Maybe not as tight as the Quebecois version, but tight. There's been political panic here this week, every mainstream political party telling the Scots (whom they have largely ignored for years) how much they love them, all the financial institutions threatening imminent apocalypse if they go independent, blah blah. Were I forced to have a bet, my money would be on a narrow 1%-2% majority to stay in the union. But it is far from impossible that the Scots will have the balls to face down the money men and vote yes. I would if I were them, but that's another story.

It's going to be tight. Maybe not as tight as the Quebecois version, but tight. There's been political panic here this week, every mainstream political party telling the Scots (whom they have largely ignored for years) how much they love them, all the financial institutions threatening imminent apocalypse if they go independent, blah blah. Were I forced to have a bet, my money would be on a narrow 1%-2% majority to stay in the union. But it is far from impossible that the Scots will have the balls to face down the money men and vote yes. I would if I were them, but that's another story.

I assume your perspective is coloured via your locale cf. Westminster. I don't think Scotland will have a problem making a success of being a small, independent country in the long term. However, the SNP are being fundamentally dishonest with their repeated avoidance of all the big financial, currency, EU etc etc questions. They're the very definition of 'jam tomorrow'.

I'm not a fan of the current politics in the UK but to say that the Scots have been ignored for years is simply daft. It's currently fashionable to bash the political parties but I don't see the rush for the critics to step up to the plate and stand for any office themselves and the voter turnout for years in general elections has been a disgrace. We get what we deserve.

If they want out of what has been a pretty successful union for all concerned, good luck to them. However, if/when they leave, I expect my representatives (i.e. rUK politicians) at post-referendum negotiations to play very hard.

The SNP paint the situation, without explaining anything, as going to be utopia from September 19th, 2014. I mean, what a stupid time to try this. One of the biggest recessions in ages, which we're hopefully just coming out of here and ongoing chaos in the Euro-zone. About the only +ve I can see is that this has been a relative triumph for the democratic process - Scotland asked for a referendum and the UK government w/o a great deal of fuss said OK.

Yeah, the similarities between this and the Quebec referendums run deep.

That's another thing I'm not looking forward to - ongoing, repeated calls for more referenda in the event of any sort of 'no' vote! How's it going for the Quebecois these days? Downtrodden, put upon and financially worse off per capita than the rest of Canada?

I assume your perspective is coloured via your locale cf. Westminster. I don't think Scotland will have a problem making a success of being a small, independent country [U]in the long term[/U]. However, the SNP are being fundamentally dishonest with their repeated avoidance of all the big financial, currency, EU etc etc questions. They're the very definition of 'jam tomorrow'. I'm not a fan of the current politics in the UK but to say that the Scots have been ignored for years is simply daft. It's currently fashionable to bash the political parties but I don't see the rush for the critics to step up to the plate and stand for any office themselves and the voter turnout for years in general elections has been a disgrace. We get what we deserve. If they want out of what has been a pretty successful union for all concerned, good luck to them. However, if/when they leave, I expect my representatives (i.e. rUK politicians) at post-referendum negotiations to play [U] very [/U] hard. The SNP paint the situation, without explaining anything, as going to be utopia from September 19th, 2014. I mean, what a stupid time to try this. One of the biggest recessions in ages, which we're hopefully just coming out of here and ongoing chaos in the Euro-zone. About the only +ve I can see is that this has been a relative triumph for the democratic process - Scotland asked for a referendum and the UK government w/o a great deal of fuss said OK.

Always unwise to make assumptions. And this probably isn't the forum for a political debate. Suffice it to say that it is impossible for "the critics" to "step up to the plate" because of the stranglehold the mainstream parties have on the process.

As for getting what we deserve, the turnout in the Scottish referendum looks like being over 80%. People will engage if they are presented with a real choice between distinct alternatives, on an issue that matters. The UK electorate hasn't had that luxury for about thirty years.