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As above, such a close split will cause nothing but trouble.
I hope with such a strong result the SNP will be able to use it as a lever to gain more power from boris and more money.
I say this as someone who's English but with family and a parent that's Scottish that I hope no split happens as it will be the worst divorce in history
see this kind of encapsulates one of the main things that puts me off anything snp so much – the extreme reaction and polarisation with regards anyone who doesn’t comply, to the point of near violence it seems
You read it rather differently from me. I have the same issue with Tory voting in-laws who don’t understand that not everyone agrees with them and would think nothing of turning up in my house and preaching. I’d be just as offended at anyone uninvited telling me I must vote for *any* party. I don’t get angry as such, I just usually make some comment that goes over their head and change the subject. Their daughter however gets furious and I have to deal with the ranting for the rest of the day (even worse is when her sister does it!).
FWIW they vote Tory for two reasons: 1. They hate sturgeon (I’ve never heard a political reason for this hatred her dress sense causes more ire than her policies) - they do read the Express though and repeat everything there as fact! 2. “If it wasn’t for thatcher we would never have been able to buy our council house (in the 80s)” it’s indisputable that Tory policy in the 80s served them personally very well.
For me the vote would be made compulsory and the result would need to be 60/40 before independence happened
I completely get the issue (and pretty sure Sturgeon does too) but imagine the possibility that there was a vote like you describe with a 59.9 40.1 split... how would that be so different to 60.1 39.9 yet in the former a lot more peoples views are “ignored”. Then yes voters who were remain voters who lost that referendum are being told the rules are different... 2014 and 2016 make it really difficult to adopt a different set of rules.
I’m also really sceptical about compulsory votes - do we want people (from either side) who can’t be bothered to go to a polling station/get a postal vote to be probably the most critical part of deciding our future?
This is a very mixed result in my opinion. I am expecting a sustained attack on devolution from the UK government. Gove is already on Radio Scotland marginalising the role of the Holyrood Parliament.
It seems the aim is to try to claim that independence is a minority issue here as the SNP did not get an outright majority. Trouble for the tories is they may control the narrative down south but they do not up here - and no one in scotland cares what English politicians and press say