Refused to take my Scottish tenner...

[Mikael]

Now oil is under $50 a barrel I wonder what the Scottish economy would have been like if the children of Scotland got their way ..
Scaremongering? Ummm . . I think it was a rather nice move by the majority of Scotland.

What were the SNPs figures using the oil revenue? Odds are Steve knows the facts.

Scotland would have been in a protracted negotiation right about now and no doubt the pro union side would be crowing at the drop in oil price with no end of 'I told you so's. This would likely badly weaken Scotland's negotiating position and be a thorn its side economically for a while if the prices stayed low.

The only way we could answer your question definitively would have been to vote Yes. Maybe Craig you should campaign for independence so we can have a re-run if you are really curious

[CraigofScotland]

It goes to show though Mikael that basing an economy on a commodity so volatile that it can be affected so easily by external factors, would have been a rather silly idea.

Oil prices will go up, they will. They might go down again . . . .


The tagline for pro was #projectfear . . it was said consistently and constantly. So yes, some smugness does come into play.

[Iain Smith]

It goes to show though Mikael that basing an economy on a commodity so volatile that it can be affected so easily by external factors, would have been a rather silly idea.

Oil prices will go up, they will. They might go down again . . . .

The tagline for pro was #projectfear . . it was said consistently and constantly. So yes, some smugness does come into play.

You mean the falling oil price isn't some
"Wastemonster" scaremongering conspiracy?

Well, I never...

[Baron015]

It goes to show though Mikael that basing an economy on a commodity so volatile that it can be affected so easily by external factors, would have been a rather silly idea.

Oil prices will go up, they will. They might go down again . . . .

I think Russia is just rediscovering this as well right now. How could they forget what preempted the end of the USSR ? True story.

[Mikael]

It goes to show though Mikael that basing an economy on a commodity so volatile that it can be affected so easily by external factors, would have been a rather silly idea.

While much of was hyped about oil from both sides even the SNP did not claim that they were basing the whole economy on oil (yet again I feel I need to reiterate for the hundredth time the SNP are not the be all and end all of the independence movement).

Oil prices will go up, they will. They might go down again . . . .

Like you say oil is commodity whose price fluctuates, sometimes wildly. Given the the politically unstable situation in Russia as well as the Middle East having something right on our door step is an asset. When the price is low the return is low, then the price goes up the return goes up. Such is life.

The tagline for pro was #projectfear . . it was said consistently and constantly. So yes, some smugness does come into play.

So are you honestly saying because the price in oil has dropped therefore all the pro union arguments made were all all rational and none of them were designed to instil an irrational fear?*
(off the bonkers claims one particular favourite of mine was that the Pandas might have to be returned)
What if the price off oil had risen this year (keep in mind that oil is a commodity with fluctuating value that is highly dependent on external factors so could have gone that way)? Would you now be claiming that all of the pro union arguments were in fact scaremongierng?

I can understand why this might prompt some smugness but lets not try to pave over the past with rose tinted glasses in favour of one side over the other due to our own voting preference. Both sides fell well short of honest campaigning at times which did us all disservice irrespective of whether we were Yes, undecided or No.

* Admittedly its hard to make a No campaign sound positive.

[Baron015]

I never imagined I would be agreeing with Frank Field, but there it is. +1 What he said.

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-...ish-referendum

[Hickdive]

I never imagined I would be agreeing with Frank Field, but there it is. +1 What he said.

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-...ish-referendum

Whilst I agree with him on his proposed solution of a more federal system including an English assembly I can't help but notice that he assigns an imagined malice to the existing devolution settlements.

He also forgets that the government he was a member of utterly botched the question of English devolution by conflating it with some half-arsed system of regional assemblies which would simply have converted the "West Lothian" question into the "West Yorkshire" one.

The article smacks more of spite than insight.

[Baron015]

Whilst I agree with him on his proposed solution of a more federal system including an English assembly I can't help but notice that he assigns an imagined malice to the existing devolution settlements.

He also forgets that the government he was a member of utterly botched the question of English devolution by conflating it with some half-arsed system of regional assemblies which would simply have converted the "West Lothian" question into the "West Yorkshire" one.

The article smacks more of spite than insight.

He did seem a bit angry about something towards the end, I ignored that bit.