@ Ethan :D
It's been the same for years -- yes, Scotland has a say in some things but we're too small, realistically, to do anything of note because we're always drowned out by majority down south. There's about 2 million more people in London than there is in the entirety of Scotland, so we get outvoted on things a lot of the time. Good example of that is that, as far as I'm aware, we're the only country in the UK to unanimously vote against the nukes, yet those ended up happening (and right on our doorstep but that's another argument for a different day). It's really frustrating, as somebody who's been brought up with a very strong emphasis on politics (my dad is
super political) to see it working as lopsidedly as it does with the whole England-versus-Scotland thing every time. It's also really frustrating to me that people think I hate the English, which is apparently a common sentiment down south. Most of Scotland doesn't hate England -- they just hate Westminster because disproportionate votes like this one show that we really don't have much of a voice at all and that we're really not being listened to. The independence referendum is a perfect example, for sure -- I'm almost sure the trigger point
was set at 55% as a point of being safe as it was a big decision, which is more than half of the country and yet the overall UK vote to leave the EU was what, 51.9% or something like that? It just seems strange that the 55% would have been imposed on the referendum for Scottish independence but not on the one for the EU, which is arguably a far bigger vote as it affects more than just Scotland. I'd have expected the government to take a very safe stance on it, such as they did for the independence referendum.
I'd love to see powers further devolved away from Westminster, I really would, but honestly I don't see it happening in the near future. We asked for more power when we voted to remain in the UK and we got barely anything. Holyrood is currently trying to get more devolved powers around matters relating to drugs and drug abuse and I don't even think we'll get that. I feel like Westminster perhaps sees us as the rebel colony (for lack of a better phrase) and especially with all of the uncertainty, I don't see us (or Wales / NI for that matter) getting anything else until we see how the country settles after we actually leave the EU, particularly when Westminster probably want to keep a handle on us to stop us from doing anything stupid (in the vein of Indyref2) that'll further damage the economy in the UK. To be honest, I think even Sturgeon is apprehensive about calling for Indyref2 because honestly, she knows as well as everybody else that the UK breaking away from the EU and then us breaking away from the UK (and there's serious calls for it up here -- a lot more people are far angrier than they were the first time around) is basically suicide both for us and for the UK. We need to wait until the dust settles on Brexit before anything else is decided. We'll know more about what the country will look like at that point. I'm in no way an SNP supporter, but I think that them and Sturgeon are doing the right thing by not trying to rock the boat just now. There'll be time in the future, but this isn't the time.
The voter turnout in the UK is ridiculous. As I said above, I lived in the Netherlands for 6 months in 2015 and lived with international students from all across the globe and most of them were horrified when we talked about the lack of people voting because they're so used to virtually everybody voting back in their own home countries. I feel like, at least from Scotland's perspective (possibly Wales and NI too, but I speak only for Scotland because I experience it firsthand and don't wanna make assumptions about other areas) a lot of people feel like their vote is nigh-on-useless. Still, something needs to be done about it. Scotland's highest turnout of voters was for Indyref, but we don't seem to turn up for anything else. I think it's like
lozzieee who. says -- we're far too apathetic when it comes to politics in the entirety of the UK. I just wish we could have the turnout we had for Indyref for other things. So many teenagers here were turned onto politics with it but then just dropped off when it came to GEs and the suchlike.
@ lozzieee who.
It's ridiculous on so many levels, seriously. I feel like the only time we're addressed is when Sturgeon kicks up a fuss about [insert political issue that affects Scotland but we're not consulted / listened to on said matter] and even then, it feels like we're being placated and then brushed under the carpet again. As I mentioned above in my reply to Ethan, I'm not a fan of the SNP (I much prefer the Scottish Greens, who have more of a political stance than simply shouting 'we want independence' every couple of years) but sometimes I can see why they push for independence so much. We've barely been consulted on Brexit at all, and I completely understand why Sturgeon was so angry when the DUP were trying to tailor-make NI's stance when we hadn't even been asked at all. Oh man, the north definitely feel like they're with us sometimes. I had a friend at work from Newcastle, and he always felt like the entire city was being totally ignored. It's all one for me to complain about Scotland, but we get a bit of a say sometimes. I feel like the North just has to go along with London / Central / Southern England on everything even though you guys clearly have different needs to the major cities who have finance as their primary industry. Or at least that's the impression I got from my colleague. Scotland already struggles with increased pricing for select things when it comes to the Highlands (which are classed in with the islands despite being on the main island -- never could work that one out myself, I'm just thankful I live on the central belt!) and as far as I know, Wales does in more rural areas too. Increasing
anything is going to cause an absolute nightmare for the areas that're already struggling. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Wales is going to be hit really hard because they receive the most funding from EU initiatives, which I really hope doesn't happen.
Yeah, it's definitely really difficult to predict what's going to happen. I think that's part of the reason why we're waiting on Indyref2 -- Sturgeon's waiting to see how adversely we'll be affected before deciding whether to pull a second referendum because honestly, I think if we pulled it now, we'd leave but it might not be best for us anymore. I know that at least Germany and France said they'd back us re-joining as quickly as they could get us in, but on the opposite hand Spain really don't like the idea of Scottish independence because it just adds fuel to the whole Catalunya fire so they'll oppose us being candidates for our own separate membership. And with the economy in a shambles as it is, if we secede just now, we're basically completely damning the entire country to a pretty damn shitty existence. I honestly don't know how it'll play out and the uncertainty coupled with the idea that we're not on the best of terms with any country (let's be honest, most countries don't like us or if they didn't mind us, probably don't like us now) just makes me really uneasy. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out though.
That was one of my big worries too. There's a couple of people that I'm really friendly with at work who were worried about being told to go back home, and you're right, it shouldn't be something we have to celebrate. The other negative thing about it was the slew of racism that followed. I saw some of the stories in the news the day after the referendum and some of the things that were being said to people not of UK origin was disgusting, to put it frankly. I'm much like yourself -- I totally believe that free movement is a massively good thing and it honestly infuriates me that people voted simply to 'shut the border to terrorists' or whatever, especially considering people were complaining about people from Syria a lot (or at least they were up here) and it doesn't even apply to Syrians, never mind the fact that most of the 'foreign terrorists' these people complain about are UK born and bred.
The whole 'taking back our country' thing really irritates me. It's never
not been our country. I don't understand why people think the EU dictates every step we take when we have elections to determine who we put in parliament for those issues.
I feel like we definitely flourish better within the EU and I'm really worried, much like you, that my position is going to get far worse. I'm nowhere near a politics genius -- I did music at uni, so beyond basic contract law and how it works with the EU, I have no credible backup other than what I've seen on both Scottish and UK-wide news programmes. I just have bad feelings about the entire thing, and they haven't gone away ever since the result was announced.