Scottish Independence

[villaajax]

 

Will independence mean Scotland won't have an army? Meaning we could invade and claim the country back by force?

 

We can just wait for them to go bankrupt and give it up (again) it will probably be quicker.

 

 

Would it be as fun though?

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It's been confirmed that RBS has been in talks with the BoE to move to London in the event of a yes vote.

[snowychap]

It's been confirmed that RBS has been in talks with the BoE to move to London in the event of a yes vote.

To move their HQ to London.

Edit: This would be the shockingly badly run, decades behind time IT-wise, still owing for dicking its customers on any kind of insurance going, still mostly UKFI owned, RBS?

Not really sure who would venture a call on one side or the other whether them moving their HQ south of the border is anything more than symbolic and, even if, how symbolic it would be.

Edited September 10, 2014 by snowychap

[villaajax]

 

It's been confirmed that RBS has been in talks with the BoE to move to London in the event of a yes vote.

To move their HQ to London.

 

 

Rather than a couple of branches?

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Good to know Big Finance respect democracy.

[TrentVilla]

Good to know Big Finance respect democracy.

 

But interesting to note that they at least still acknowledge the notion of nation states.

[Nabby]

Was speculated quite a while ago this would happen 

[peterms]

It's been confirmed that RBS has been in talks with the BoE to move to London in the event of a yes vote.

To move their HQ to London.

And many of their other other operations elsewhere. A charity I know banks with them, wanted a second account for a subsidiary. They have to phone a call centre and get called back. No local staff can deal with it. They can't get a number for anyone other than the call centre. Their simple request has not been actioned after several months.

Despite it being their preference to keep their accounts with one bank, they are now having to go elsewhere, because this mighty institution can't process the simplest request concerning the very core business of a bank, ie opening an account for someone who wants to do business with them.

I suppose if it was something more exotic, perhaps called something like a leveraged reverse repo CDS swap with a Colombian cartel and an al-Quaeda franchise, they'd be falling over themselves to get it sorted.

It would be a big favour to Scotland if these people would remove themselves elsewhere entirely, I reckon.

[snowychap]

 

 

It's been confirmed that RBS has been in talks with the BoE to move to London in the event of a yes vote.

To move their HQ to London.

 

And many of their other other operations elsewhere. A charity I know banks with them, wanted a second account for a subsidiary. They have to phone a call centre and get called back. No local staff can deal with it. They can't get a number for anyone other than the call centre. Their simple request has not been actioned after several months.

Despite it being their preference to keep their accounts with one bank, they are now having to go elsewhere, because this mighty institution can't process the simplest request concerning the very core business of a bank, ie opening an account for someone who wants to do business with them.

I suppose if it was something more exotic, perhaps called something like a leveraged reverse repo CDS swap with a Colombian cartel and an al-Quaeda franchise, they'd be falling over themselves to get it sorted.

It would be a big favour to Scotland if these people would remove themselves elsewhere entirely, I reckon.

 

That, though, is hugely off topic, Peter.

[snowychap]

 

Good to know Big Finance respect democracy.

 

But interesting to note that they at least still acknowledge the notion of nation states.

 

Not sure where they're doing that (if they ever have)?

Edited September 10, 2014 by snowychap

[peterms]

It's been confirmed that RBS has been in talks with the BoE to move to London in the event of a yes vote.

To move their HQ to London.

And many of their other other operations elsewhere. A charity I know banks with them, wanted a second account for a subsidiary. They have to phone a call centre and get called back. No local staff can deal with it. They can't get a number for anyone other than the call centre. Their simple request has not been actioned after several months.

Despite it being their preference to keep their accounts with one bank, they are now having to go elsewhere, because this mighty institution can't process the simplest request concerning the very core business of a bank, ie opening an account for someone who wants to do business with them.

I suppose if it was something more exotic, perhaps called something like a leveraged reverse repo CDS swap with a Colombian cartel and an al-Quaeda franchise, they'd be falling over themselves to get it sorted.

It would be a big favour to Scotland if these people would remove themselves elsewhere entirely, I reckon.

That, though, is hugely off topic, Peter.

Sorry if it seems so. To make the connection, I mean that if they decamp, it shouldn't be just the bits they need to move to get LOLR protection, but the whole incompetent, festering, decrepit mess.

Now, if you want off topic, I will say that if any public body displayed even a quarter of the utter incompetence that this and other private organisations regularly do, we would have a long queue of people waiting to make scornful comments to the Daily Mail website.

[Swerbs]

All three of the banks that produce Scottish notes (RBS, Lloyds and Clydesdale) have announced they'll be moving down if yes then. I'm not clued up on what the effects would be.

[peterms]

All three of the banks that produce Scottish notes (RBS, Lloyds and Clydesdale) have announced they'll be moving down if yes then. I'm not clued up on what the effects would be.

The effects will be that if they make profits, they keep them and hand them out among the richest people in the world. If they make losses, whether through misfortune, rank incompetence, or being too debilitated through extreme drug use to perform simple motor functions, the poor pick up the tab.

[bickster]

Yes Salmond used to go on and on and on and on about the Scottish banks leading the way etc.

Then RBS and HBoS went rather spectacularly tits up

[DanishVillan]

All three of the banks that produce Scottish notes (RBS, Lloyds and Clydesdale) have announced they'll be moving down if yes then. I'm not clued up on what the effects would be.

The banks need a large population to bailout the large losses. UK>England>Scotland.

what share of the Scottish money supply is in printed form anyway..3-4% ?

[Jon]

 

All three of the banks that produce Scottish notes (RBS, Lloyds and Clydesdale) have announced they'll be moving down if yes then. I'm not clued up on what the effects would be.

The effects will be that if they make profits, they keep them and hand them out among the richest people in the world. If they make losses, whether through misfortune, rank incompetence, or being too debilitated through extreme drug use to perform simple motor functions, the poor pick up the tab.

 

But this time, it'll just be the poor from rUK that will pick up the tab. Them Scotch ain't stupid ...

[TrentVilla]

All three of the banks that produce Scottish notes (RBS, Lloyds and Clydesdale) have announced they'll be moving down if yes then. I'm not clued up on what the effects would be.

 

You are Alex Salmond and I claim my £5*

 

(* and I want a proper fiver, not one of those hooky north of the border efforts thanks)

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 Has anybody seen the comments of Salmond comparing this election to the post-apartheid elections in South Africa?

 

What an utter moron.

[MakemineVanilla]

It is easy to see why the Scots dream of creating their very own Scandinavian-style socialist utopia because they do share the same chilly weather and access to an hydrocarbon cash cow, like the Norwegians.

 

But what they don't seem to have are the societal values about equality and social justice, which is a traditional part of the Scandinavian political mindset.

 

Scotland has some of the worst levels of inequality when it comes to wealth and life-expectancy and yet Scotland is richer than many parts of England and enjoys the benefit of 22% (2007) extra social spending per head of population than England due to the so-called Barnett formula, which means the Scottish government has over £1500 per person to spend on social provision, compared with many parts of England (eg the West Midlands).

 

So if Scotland has failed to tackle its social and economic inequality under those very favourable conditions, it is difficult to imagine how they can do it, once they have to raise their own taxes.

 

Norway can't support their social programmes with oil money alone and so it seems unlikely that Scotland will either, and so it seems likely that they will have to raise their taxes from the present level (36.7% of gdp) to the same as or greater than Norway (42.2%).

 

Faced with increases in taxation, it is difficult to imagine how a future independent Scotland can keep the businesses it already has, let alone attract more.

 

Obviously there are more than enough Scottish voters to put any party who offer them their socialist dream into power, but it does not mean that the out-voted rich minority, are going to hang around to be taxed, to pay for for it. 

 

Capital flight seems inevitable, unless the Scottish rich are substantially different to those who occupy the rest of the planet..

 

 

 

 

 

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Charlie Mayfield, Chair of John Lewis Partnership has said that product prices would increase as a consequence of a yes vote, as the logistical cost of bringing products north of the Wall to the Wildlings is high, but off-set by business elsewhere in the UK.

 

When you couple this with your entire banking sector threatening to up sticks and leave you, with Salmond repeating his bluff to do an Argentina and wash his hands of debt, you'd be pretty concerned if you had a mortgage in Scotland right now.

 

Apparently today they'll be talking about Defence. If any part of the Yes/SNP campaign policy highlights how little thought they have put into this then its defence. I posted elsewhere a titbit of the ridiculous number of contradictions, but a little one concerning the main boon of SNP policy; the nukes.

 

They want to get rid of Trident within one parliament (which isn't feasible) and state there won't be a loss of jobs in the region. There are approximately 6000 currently employed around Faslane in maintaining the nuclear deterrent, which is set to rise to 8200 when Trident's replacement comes in. They plan to have a navy based there (which doesn't make any strategic sense) and it will be manned by 1000 personnel. I am no mathematician,  but I am certain the 6000 and 8200 are bigger numbers than 1000, by a fairly significant margin.