Thought I'd start a new thread as this is going to be a major talking point this year...have not made up my mind yet...(unlike bucksfizz)....but thinking of voting for an exit as Europe is not doing Britain any good at all it seems....

More seriously, can you imagine Scotland with falling oil prices.

Nicola said she would be bringing in legislation to leave in the event that the Scottish Parliament wanted a referendum. She would want a referendum during the two year period that it will take us to leave. The reason for that is that it would then be Scotland staying in the EU rather than Scotland joining the EU which is what it would be after the two years.

There are a couple of problems with that. Firstly she has lost her majority in the Scottish Parliament and it would vote down her ideas. Secondly, the EU has previously made it clear that it would regard Scotland as joining irrespective of when it happened. It looks like she is doing a bit of grandstanding.

There is a petition with 100,000 signatures for a second referendum on the EU. Fat chance of that!

I wouldn't write it off...

Maybe the EU will offer lots of concession, saying "please stay, we didn't mean it".

Scotland would have to accept the Euro , i don't think so .

They want a quick renegotiation because they fear contagion. Well tough, they will have to wait until we are good and ready. Time is on our side.

They had their chance , Merkel and Juncker nearly in tears .

When we get disasters , murders , ISIS beheadings etc I always wonder why these news readers show no emotion , they have to be professional they say . But iv'e just watched the BBC news now and to see Sophie Raworth's face it was a picture of absolute disgust , anger , disbelief , so where's the professional person now . Typical BBC thought they'd conned everyone .

The Scots won't want to be stuck with the pound sterling.

more to the point, the scots will certainly want independence
whether or not they can actually afford it makes the role of £ or € there almost irrelevant

Would they rather join a failing currency and a system that is falling apart, if they do they are prats aimho of course.
2517

They'd join old nick if they thought he would subsidise them.

They've lost us which must be a big hit to their incoming lolly .

I don't agree cynic ,as GEORGE says the Euro is a failing currency ,Scotland could not afford to leave us anyway.

iain
you may be right about "out" being a pyrrhic victory (i already knew a bit of greek history), and i confess it was only with considerable misgivings that i voted "out"

however, i have long thought and written as much that EU needs root and branch reform, and i see no willingness of the ruling plutocracy to even acknowledge the bare minimum
i don't believe this attitude would have changed had "remain" won, as indeed i was certain it would .... after all, what pressure would there have been to reform?

now, there will be much more pressure from very substantial groups in other member states, not least being NL which of course was one of the founders of the European Economic Community

I wonder if that's the end of the controversial High Speed Rail HS2 now . A lot would welcome that .

The funny thing is, ozzy seems to have gone missing with the helicopter gunship and people (outside the banks) seem to be in good cheer and are getting on with life.


So much for the plague and pestilence that was going to rain down on us.

It's a bit like a disaster really shock for a while then get back at it .

Do you remember Nigel asking everyone in the EU (and elsewhere), "Who is this Juncker, guy? What are is credentials? Where has he come from? What has he done?"

This was when Juncker was appointed without any election.

Obviously, he's not any friend of ours, is he? He's just about 'power and politics' and not doing any kind of a job for the benefit of the people of Europe. Anyone of any sense knows, that the best decisions for any kind of a rupture in a relationship are to be gained from some careful thought and negotiation, not from a rush.

HS2 just benefits all those at the end of the line and nobody in between. We should be encouraging the use of Skype and similar and putting in stunning broadband architecture. I'm against HS2 because of its astronomic cost and the fact that it benefits just a few. There are several alternative, much more modern and much cheaper fast travel methods too.

eg. How about ETT or ET3? http://www.gizmag.com/future-transport/22959/

Thank heavens for that all ex politicians giving it grief and the JCB chairman says what you want to hear .