As A Californian... I Understand Scotland's Desire For Independence... :evilgrin:

[WillyT]

Whereupon everyone but the Scots forgot about the referendum for a couple of years as it was assumed a no vote was a formality and that come 19 September it would be business as usual.

What got discounted in the calculation was the Scottish dislike of the Tories and the Westminster establishment in general and the belief that Scotland had always been given a raw deal.

Little by little, the polls moved towards yes and, as they did so, the no campaign began to bring out the big guns, with Gordon Brown finally bussed in to take over from Alistair Darling as project leader.

Panic properly set in less than two weeks ago when an opinion poll indicated the yes campaign was ahead for the first time. The three Westminster parties, along with many broadcasters and newspapers, realised there was a turn-up on the cards, and so sent every hand north to save the union.

Cameron, Miliband, Barack Obama, the EU, the Queen, Bob Geldof and JK Rowling all pleaded for the Scots to see sense. "You'll be broke. You'll rot in prisons abroad. You'll never get out of Scotland alive."

Cameron even promised the devo max option he had refused three years before. The Scots could have anything. Love. Money. Holidays. Blue skies. Anything but independence.

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/18/cameron-devo-max-salmond-referendum-scots-antipathy-tories

[KamaAina]

1. And again I ask, how many millions of pounds has the No side poured into their campaign?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014898126#post60

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Some links for you

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29027130
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29206608
http://www.wptz.com/money/the-big-money-behind-scotlands-independence-vote/28085098

So the 2 big donors were a couple with £1m to the 'Yes' campaign, and more to the SNP; and JK Rowling with £1m to Better Together. While the big donations to Yes were as big as to No, it seems the smaller donations to No must have been more.

You can search the donations over £7500 here: https://pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk/Search/CommonReturnsSearch.aspx?type=basicDonationSearch

[KamaAina]

5. Rowling actually makes sense

she's English, but moved to Edinburgh to be near her sister.

One wonders if employees of RBS and the other mega-corps that have threatened to bail on Scotland bundled contributions.

[LiberalArkie]

2. Better to be poor than a slave.

[frazzled]

4. So you're a states-rightsie kind of guy

Although I am somewhat neutral on this question, since I have no skin in the game,* I'm finding it a little odd the amount of cheering going on for what some here have called the "moral" right of secession, especially when the question is brought closer to home.

It's particularly odd because it comes right as we all are watching The Roosevelts, our supposed progressive heroes. What both Roosevelts are most remembered for is ushering in the age of a strong central government as against the notion of states rights. It is what progressivism was built on.

So go figure. I do think that many people don't have coherent political philosophies, but rather rag-tag, seat-of-the-pants, short-term, one-thing-at-a-time reactions. It's quite curious ... but it isn't progressive.

*I kept saying, and actually thinking, that I have no skin in this Scottish game thing. But actually I do! I just remembered today that around 5 years ago, I bought a bottle of Laphroig, and when I got home and opened the box, there was a tag around the bottle neck. I opened and read it, and it said that if I went to this web site and input the special number on my tag, I would gain possession of my ONE-SQUARE-FOOT of bona-fide peat bog on the land of the Laphroig Distillery, which I would own. Intrigued, I went, signed in, claimed my piece, and was even able to see (and talk to) the people who owned adjacent one-foot plots around me. I can go to visit my square foot, and they even sent me a "deed" to it in the mail! I am a landowner in Scotland!

[WillyT]

6. No... I'm Tired Of Being Held Back By The Least Common Denominator...

Some of us were ready for the 21st Century... others not so much.

And we have to pay the price for their idiocy.

Climate Change... for instance.