What happens ?....Scottish Independence.

[DanJ]

I'm really glad the Scots decided to stay, independance for Scotland would have been a disater for the whole Union but now it looks like our not particularly large country is going to be split by regional factionalism.

With Scotland looking like its going to get some form of Devo-Max other areas will, quite justifiably, want the same.

All I can see is the opportunity for more layers of burocracy, local politics, factional arguments and wrangling coming to the fore.  It will be complex, expensive and in then not much will change.

[Sandinista]

I'd settle for an English assembly that doesn't allow the other countries to meddle in English affairs.

Everyone will still get shafted by the vested interests of the London based bankers who f***ed it all.

So, nothing will change 

[Fenton]

With 9 of the poorest regions in Northern Europe being in the UK, I think we have to start concentrating on getting this fixed

[Leman]

Disappointed to hear on the lunchtime news that Labour is not too keen on federating the UK. Probably because they would be totally shafted in the South-east, the bedrock of greed in this country, or is that countries. Who knows any more? It is interesting to note that we are one of the few major countries where the centre of finance and the centre of government are located in the same city. Thinking of Washington/New York, Berlin/Frankfurt, Ottawa/Toronto, Den Haag/Amsterdam, Canberra/Sydney and so on.

[Ithoriel]

Twenty-somethings to forty-somethings seem to have been more pro-independence and fifty-somethings and up more pro-union.

With luck, and good medical care, I may yet live to see the re-run!

I suspect I am personally better off but my country is worse off as a result of yesterday's vote.

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

[snip] It is interesting to note that we are one of the few major countries where the centre of finance and the centre of government are located in the same city. Thinking of Washington/New York, Berlin/Frankfurt, Ottawa/Toronto, Den Haag/Amsterdam, Canberra/Sydney and so on.

Washington, Ottawa and Canberra are to some extent 'created' capitals.  Government in W Germany was set up in Bonn artificially and finance developed in Frankfurt. Not sure of development of The Hague but the Netherlands were in origin a collection of States anyway.   You could I suspect add to your list Istanbul/Ankara (a case of moving the capital). You may also use Italy as an example with Milan being more of a finance centre than Rome.  Mind you these may not meet your 'major' criterion.

But many countries financial centres are in fact in the capital city, absent unusual circumstances.  Whether this is a good or bad thing is another matter entirely.  I am not sure that the physical separation of the location of government from that of finance has a great deal of effect on policy.

Regards

Edward

[Leman]

Maybe not, but if they were separate I doubt 15 million people would live within thirty miles of the centre of London, resulting in a much less London-centric viewpoint.

[Luddite]

I find it all baffling.

The Nationalists nearly destroyed this country by fragmenting it, and the response from the political 'elite' and many others is 'lets fragment the country into 'devolved regions'.  Baffling.

As i've posted across social media:

Some Scots want 'independence' from the 307 year Union that they created, and for 3 centuries have vigorously contributed to, benefited from, and continue to be a powerful part of.

Together the Scots, English, Welsh, and Northern Irish, through a wonderful, often bitter and tumultuous union, invented the modern world and via the Enlightenment, developed science, reason, engineering and progress that created the industrial revolution and founded an Empire on which 'the Sun never set'. In the process we created great modern nations like America and Australia, defeated European fascism time and again, (from Napoleon (I, II, and III), to Emperor Wilhelm, to Hitler) saving the Europeans from themselves. We now stand in the twilight of that amazing and bitter past, staring into the bright glare of a possible future.

We truly are better together.

Now, if our Scots brothers and sisters can heal their wounds and pitch in with the rest of us again, there's a fight to be won to wrest control of our UK back from corporately owned Westminster, and their political cabal consensus that denies us all in equal measure.

[mollinary]

I never thought I would type this, but I am truly delighted that Scotland decided to stay a part of the Union.  I am sure it would not only have been worse for them if they had become independent, but also for the rest of us. It is now for all of us to involve ourselves in the process of ensuring that the reforms which will now follow do not just add yet more layers of mindless bureaucracy to the huge array we already possess.  Our real problem has much in common with that of the Austrian Army of 1866. We do not have enough staff qualified officers and generals (read senior politicians/statesmen) to man all the levels of command effectively.  Where are we going to find them?   Volunteers, one pace forward!   

Mollinary

[Luddite]

I never thought I would type this, but I am truly delighted that Scotland decided to stay a part of the Union.  I am sure it would not only have been worse for them if they had become independent, but also for the rest of us. It is now for all of us to involve ourselves in the process of ensuring that the reforms which will now follow do not just add yet more layers of mindless bureaucracy to the huge array we already possess.  Our real problem has much in common with that of the Austrian Army of 1866. We do not have enough staff qualified officers and generals (read senior politicians/statesmen) to man all the levels of command effectively.  Where are we going to find them?   Volunteers, one pace forward!   

Mollinary

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Erm...
Napoleon II?
An Austrian Leuitenent in the Hussars who died from TB before he was 30?

[Luddite]

Oops.  Slip of the typing finger.  I could correct the mistype, but i'll take the shame.   

[fsn]

Erm...
Napoleon II?
An Austrian Leuitenent in the Hussars who died from TB before he was 30?

Yeah! He was a right swine, and a danger to the Empire. They said he died of TB, but in fact is was a British covert operation that cannot yet be talked off openly. If fact just by typing this I may have laid myself open to reprisals from the state. 

[WeeWars]

Yeah! He was a right swine, and a danger to the Empire. They said he died of TB, but in fact is was a British covert operation that cannot yet be talked off openly. If fact just by typing this I may have laid myself open to reprisals from the state. 

More likely the Bourbons. For theory and medical condition read Assassination at St Helena Revisited.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

If fact just by typing this I may have laid myself open to reprisals from the state. 

Good, mind you it wont be poison, living in Runcorn makes you immune to it. 

IanS