Ysabelle's Reflections on Scottish Independence

Scottish independence is one of those things that has been tearing apart people’s friendships, relationships and politics. It is one of those things, that if you have conflicting views on it, it is impossible to come to some sort of happy medium - you pretty much have to just avoid the subject instead, which is what I definitely do most of the time. Independence is also not one of those things you can kind of agree with points from both sides, you’re either for it or against it, it is an entirely biased subject - there is no consensus, and no room for agreement unfortunately.Every single day, I read in the news something else being discredited from Alex Salmond's white paper. Today, it was found that Alex Salmond's plan to charge the English and the rest of the UK tuition fee’s, is illegal and is in fact discrimination. It seems to me like his white paper is falling apart day, by day, along with relationships across the entire of the UK, particularly in Scotland.And this is exactly why I believe that Scottish Independence is just a waste of time and money. It’s not because I don’t think that the Scottish deserve to have a parliament, and to be in control of their own laws, its because as Steve said in his post, we are the last united kingdom in the world, its only us. In all honesty, its not like we work badly together, we have been just fine up until now and its so nice to be part of a union whilst the rest of the world is slowly ripping apart, and falling into civil unrest and apparently - literally falling apart thanks to the floods and sink holes! (the apocalypse is coming!!!!). But seriously, it is one of those things that once its done, it will be almost impossible to come back from. I understand that independence will, in the eyes of some people, help Scotland, and I am sure that it will benefit a small majority of people too, but it is important to look entirely at the bigger picture. I think it is easy to fall onto the ‘we hate the english’ bandwagon and not actually do any research on the subject. Also, a lot of people that are not Scottish, and can vote, and will be voting yes for independence, have also jumped onto the bandwagon of ‘ha ha lets see how they cope’ and neither of these attitudes towards this ridiculously important referendum are okay, they are merely moronic. I think there is some sort of attitude towards this subject in which people think that the UK want Scotland to remain part of the UK purely for financial benefit - but in all honesty, this is not a reason we want Scotland to stay. Yes, the government are probably lapping up the prospect of Scotland staying because I am sure there must be some sort of financial benefit somewhere, but the agenda of the general public, is not money. We actually just really like Scotland. Having the union makes things a lot easier for everyone, and there are so many cultural negatives that will follow if Scotland does go independent. Being an english girl in Scotland is sometimes difficult, a lot of people make assumptions about you, and usually they are negative, and yes you can be targeted by some bigoted people for purely being English, but you get the same kind of negativity if you are Scottish in England too I am sure - however, this was minimal before the question of independence came about, now, the government is almost supporting this rivalry and hatred that dates back hundreds of years and is entirely backwards. I have Scottish family, my Granddads’ family is entirely Scottish. I spent a lot of my time as a child up in Scotland with my Scottish family and I loved it, Scotland is a beautiful place (hence why I moved to Aberdeen). Scotland is idyllic to me, it is somewhere where I can be whoever I want to be - far, far away from home. But since the referendum came about I feel like I have had to justify being English in Scotland to some people. I just want Scotland to stay part of the UK because I love it, yes, I agree with some of the governments arguments, but political arguments around independence are getting boring, I hate having to repeat points over and over again. For me, the fact I love Scotland is a good enough reason for me to want it to stay part of the UK - and I am sure that this is not an unpopular opinion. Hope this wasn't too political and opinionated, I just fancied a little less of an angsty approach to the referendum today. Feel free to comment below, and give us a follow on the left hand side of the page! muchos loveysabelle xxxxx