Scotland's Road to Independence

Scotland’s Road to Independence 

On 15 October 2012, First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron came together in Edinburgh, Scotland, to agree there would be a referendum on Scotland’s independence. A referendum is a general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.

Earlier in October, the two governments came to an agreement to let 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland take part in the vote. This is the first time that voters of this age will be able to participate in a national poll in the UK. There have been mixed views on allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote. Some agree that it is a great idea since they are the future of Scotland and are already allowed to work full-time, pay taxes, join the Army, and get married. However, there are people who disagree with this decision claiming that they are children who will vote without proper consideration. The Scottish National Party, Scottish Youth Parliament, and the Liberal Democrats support the decision to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the referendum.

            There are some significant reasons that the Scots might vote ‘No’ to Scottish Independence. At the moment the recession creates a fear of economic risk and the Euro is struggling. If Scotland becomes independent it will either keep the Pound Sterling or join the Euro. If it joins the Euro that will mean Scotland will have to become part of the European Union, which might not accept another small state. If Scotland keeps the Pound, it will make it dependant on using British money and financial institutions. This would hardly be independence. These reasons could sway Scottish voters to vote ‘No’ in the referendum in 2014.

First minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron

What Independence Might Mean

• Will Scotland keep the Pound or adopt the Euro? If Scotland keeps the Pound it will still be tied into a form of ‘monetary union’ with the remainder of the UK. However, the weakness of the Euro does not make membership an attractive Scotland defences would also change. The Trident nuclear submarines would return to England while alternative.
• Scotland focuses on having a Navy of 20-25 ships. Scotland would also try to have a standing army of 15,000.
• Scotland might also try to forge an alliance with the Scandinavian countries.
• Travellers between England and Scotland would just have to carry a photo ID, which would be checked at the border and at the train stations. Drivers would have to learn new speeding and drink-drive limits once they entered Scotland. The Scottish government may consider lowering the drink-drive alcohol limit.
• Scotland might replace the BBC with a National Broadcaster.
• Will the Queen remain as the Scotland’s Head of State? Alex Salmon has stated he would hold another referendum to determine if they should keep the monarchy in its present form.

Scotland Independence to Wales
 

• If Scotland becomes independent, Wales would like the Barnett formula to be revised. The Barnett formula is a mechanism used by the Treasury in the United Kingdom to determine the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales if the Barnett formula is revised it is possible that Wales will receive more money.

Website Links

1)      http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19896924

2)      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-19892368

3)      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215403/David-Cameron-Prepares-hand-powers-16-year-olds-vote-Scotland.html

4)      http://news.stv.tv/politics/194121-scottish-and-uk-governments-reach-deal-on-single-question-referendum/

5)      http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/10/17/four-reasons-scotland-might-decline-independence/

6)      http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/lets-take-our-chance-for-a-fairer-better-1380877

7)      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9600622/Lower-voting-age-to-16-across-UK-campaigners-urge.html

8)      http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/how-an-independent-scotland-would-look-16224760.html

9)      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-19942638

10)   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-19948990

 

 

A Quick Trip to London

When you come to England you'll learn very quickly that you can get a train to almost anywhere, for a fairly reasonable price. If you're below 25 you can apply for a railcard that will make each ticket price 1/3 cheaper, so if you book in advance you can easily get to London for about £20 return (once I managed £11 return!): I just came back from there and my ticket cost £25 purely because I fancied travelling back First Class: you get free drinks and snacks, big comfy chairs and a complimentary newspaper too, so why not?

Anyway, the reason I went down to London was to go to two new exhibits at the Natural History Museum (above), which houses one of the best biological collections in the world. One thing you should definitely take advantage of: most Museums in the UK are free entry unlike the ones I visited in America: most are run off of voluntary donations (not like the Natural History Museum in New York: voluntary contribution but you have to queue and make one before they let you in!). Even the building itself is pretty cool: all the decorative columns and gargoyles are animals or plants, from a school of architectural thought that says you should know what a building contains before you read the name over the door. The theme continues inside the entrance hall (look at the pillars and tiles in the photo below), with a statue of Charles Darwin now presiding over it all.

The two new exhibits were photography free sadly, but I can highly recommend them: especially the 'Age of the Dinosaurs' which features anamatronic dinosaurs: when the Museum first opened its original robotic attractions when I was little there were day long queues just to see the model Tyrannosaurus rex which not only moved, but focused on audience movement and reacted to people, sniffing them and breathing smelly dinosaur breath on them!

After leaving the exhibit we wandered down the Thames, where part of the South Bank has been turned into a beach complete with Brighton style beach huts (above) and sand. We even got to meet William and Kate: sadly they were carousel horses though!

Sadly it did storm when we hit Covent Garden for shopping, but not before we'd visited some of my favourite shops (Cath Kidston for kitch 50's style clothes and accessories: you can't go wrong) and restaurants (Wagamama's for Japanese food... mmmmm). Thankfully in London it's always warmer than the rest of the UK so a quick shower was actually nice: not cold at all.

Before I knew it it was 8.30pm and I was back on the train, heading towards Grantham (albeit in my fancy First Class seat!). It's not really possible to get all of London in on a day trip, but at least you can be assured that the fare is reasonable, the trains are easy to manage and you can always go back while you're here: that's what weekends at Harlaxton are for!

Cheese Rolling: a Great BritishTradition?

We do have some strange relics of entertainment in this country, it's true... none of them seem as weird and wonderful as the Annual Cheese Rolling competition though! I love the caption from the Flickr photo shown above: "The winner of the women's race holds aloft a Double Gloucester Cheese after being the first to chase it down the steep gradient of Cooper's Hill in pouring rain during the annual Bank Holiday tradition of cheese-rolling in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England."

Perhaps if you're here in May you'd like to take part? Th eofficial one was cancelled because it was too popular, but there's usually an unofficial one on May Bank Holiday... Apparently the slope has a 1:1 gradient in parts!

The Month of May

Here's some facts about the month ahead in the UK...

May Day

Not just something you shout when in danger on a ship, May Day in the UK is celebrated to mark the end of the harsh winter and to look forward to a prosperous summer. Traditionally a Maypole dance takes place: the photograph shown above is of the oldest maypole in England.

On May 1st if you wash your face in the early morning dew it's supposed to have magical properties and to make you beautiful...

Oak Apple Day

Up until the 20th century it used to be a requirement that you pin an oak leaf to your clothes to mark the day that King Charles II returned to the throne in 1860. People who don't wear a leaf can be pinched, giving it it's colloquial name of 'Pinch Bum day'! It's not something I'd heard of before now so I don't think people do it still, but it's always worth wearing one so you can dole out pinches to unsuspecting friends!

Bluebell Woods

Bluebell Woods, a photo by Harlaxton College on Flickr.

The woods are open to the public this Sunday from 1-4pm: I thought I'd add a link to all of the photos on Flickr so far... it's already amazing back there so I hope it's a nice weekend for everyone!

Just click the above photo to be taken straight to our Flickr account, where you can see lots of photos of the Manor.

St. Georges Day

When I was travelling in America you couldn't even drive a few blocks without seeing an American flag. My favourite thing to spot on the way out of Evansville was this fantastic car dealership: I think it had something like 26 American flags flying? On one memorable car game we played 'Spot the American Flag' where whoever spotted them first got to punch someone: like "the Yellow Car game" or "Punch Buggy"... we had to give it up because it was getting to be painful!

In England, most of the time, it's rare to see flags flying and when they do fly it's generally the 'Union Flag' that you'll see, not the cross of our patron saint, St. George. It's a difficult position we find ourselves in: flanked by countries with holidays on their patron saint days and national flags they fly with pride, whilst being completely unsure if we're even meant to have the cross flag anymore! (There was a pretty memorable story in 2006 when a pub owner decided to show St. George fighting the dragon from the Welsh flag as part of her St Georges Day celebrations and was subsequently arrested for it, oops!) You will see the Union flag occassionally (like on the front of Harlaxton!) but not too often: we're just not big flag-flyers in general.

Today is St. Georges Day, which was a national feasting and celebration day until the 18th century. It's also apparently both the birth- and death day of William Shakespeare, poor man! In recent years there's been a gradual increase in celebration of St Georges day in this country, and hopefully the increase will continue so we can enjoy a patriotic day on par with St Patricks day, Burns Night and St Davids day. Today you'll see plenty of flags flying and especially pubs decked out to mark the occassion. Let's celebrate: we're British and we're English too!