Ok I see some people have missed the point of what I have been saying in the last few posts about voter psychology.

For the benefit of the people who do not understand what I am saying, here it is again:

People saying no to independence, do so on the basis that any problem is somebody else’s responsibility.  This is why they like to talk about how much they hate Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP.
They are choosing who to complain about when they vote.  Politics is like a spectator sport for most people, and they have no conception of how to make or visualise economic decision making, far less have any notion of how economic strategies are created and carried out.  I do, hence the rather conservative looking post yesterday.  The fact is, that the conservatives used to have a clue how to grow the economy.  They are going through a particularly sleazy patch at the moment, which is what happens every time they feel safe.
Therefore it is pointless to say independence will be great, we get to administer our own money, because any question that mistakes are their fault makes the entire idea utterly ghastly.

What people are failing to understand is that the half of the population who do not want independence see it as a threat.  A threat to their lives, their properties, the nature of Scotland, and most importantly their status.  You are not dealing with forward or outward looking people, you are dealing with people who want everything to stay the same.

As someone very familiar with people who are terrified of change, they will do anything to discredit you, your views, any question that you might be right will be rejected until it is far too late.  We need to burst that bubble.

So, my suggestion, as per my post yesterday, is a pre-prepared vision of how independence will work based on harsh reality, and based on the idea that these people will not in fact lose their houses, pensions, summer holiday, naff car, or tasteless furniture.  A brutal yet soporific vision of a realistic approach to economic growth which enables the disenfranchised poor, and does not empty the pockets of the workers, savers, property holders so that they do not fear change.

By far the biggest hurdle is assuring them that they will maintain their status.  Many people who have had more comfortable lives fear losing that more than anything, so I would suggest concentrating on the several thousand civil service jobs that will be created rather than simply saying we can grow the economy would be in order.  More money in circulation means more nice restaurants for them to eat at, and inflated property prices.  Try taking that tack, because the very nature of their resistance to change, is that they only understand the world as it applies to them.

If you still don’t understand that, I cannot help you. Sigh.

OK let me first say that the news from Alex Salmond that there is a provisional date of Autumn 2018 for another referendum in Scotland is extremely welcome. I am happy to see that the SNP, unlike the Conservative party, are paying attention to the clock.

There is a rumour going around on Twitter today that some unnamed ‘energy tycoon’ saying that an independent Scotland would need to be fracked.  This is frankly nonsense, spouted by someone who is about as far from independent as you can get.

Fracking affects the water table.  Fracking a country with a long established and unique whisky industry, and limited crop growing potential would be suicidal.  I have yet to see an actual commitment from the SNP against fracking, TTIP or CETA.  Quite the reverse, the emails I receive from the rather corporate looking Alyn Smith indicate that they are firmly on the fence on these issues. There is still time for a Scottish Independence Party to be formed with a proper commitment to the protection of Scotland, and I am wondering whether it is something to be considered.

Why is everybody ignoring the freely available information on this?  Because there is money involved.

Historically speaking, Scotland’s main economic issue has always been one of cashflow.  In fact, the union was only able to be wangled due to one of our poor cashflow periods.  At the moment, there is a deficit, which somehow sits alongside the underspend of half a billion we also hear about.  This is not unusual. If you compare the proportion of our deficit with that of the UK, you can see that we are not doing badly at all.  This deficit is something we would have to focus on if we finally get our country back.

What everybody, on either side seems to be missing is the matter of administration and management.  The whole point of independence, after all, is that in order to get control over our own affairs, we need to split up with our warmongering, heavily spending and messy English boyfriend, who at the moment seems to be arsing about and arguing over who gets what chair, in an effort to distract each other from ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING CONSTRUCTIVE.

Given that the Conservatives are likely to have a great deal of individual money tied up in deals which depend on TTIP, TISA and CETA, especially our Prime Minister, we cannot afford to sit and wait to see what these idiots are going to do next.  We need to persuade the golfers, the cricketers, the new-build buying status freaks, who have historically done what they are told whilst voting Tory or New Labour, that it is time to cut Westminster loose.  So, ask yourselves and then ask them:

Do you like living next to England’s nuclear deterrent?  This affects almost 900,000 people, or 80% of the population, depending on how you view the kill zone on the map.
Do you want your water supply polluted, your house values to plummet, and the whisky industry destroyed by fracking?
Do you want to sit and wait to see what England is doing about Brexit, or do you want to make a firm decision about your future?  There is money to be made, whether you believe in Europe, or Scexit.
Are you capable of imagining a country which has access to all the taxes raised here, which could be used to reconstitute ailing areas such as Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Argyll? If we are prepared to pitch in and get these areas moving into industry and manufacturing again, we have far less to worry about in terms of affordability.
Do you particularly want to store the nuclear waste for Hinkley, since no doubt we will be doing it at some point? They are cutting off support for renewables to force dependency on nuclear power that they have personally invested in, in the case of the Conservatives.
Do you understand that England has already cut off any international routes from Scotland’s ports, and that they have actually been at war with us for decades?
Do you want to witness the slow death of the tourist trade, as England seeks to foster even more bad relations than they are mustering already?
As we can see from the new labelling of food in Tesco, Morrisons and Marks and Spencers, they are now seeking to make the Saltire a symbol of rebellion.  This is classic cultural warfare, and we need to take a firm stance on this behaviour. Exactly the same tactics they used in India.

These points alone should raise some eyebrows, rather than getting you annoyed trying to talk to a stupid person who does not want to understand, because they fear change.  They fear change, because they fear losing their status, in many cases.

The key to the independence debate is accounting – Scotland’s cashflow issue does not mean we need vastly more money to get started on rebuilding our destroyed economy.  It means we have to be a lot smarter, and a lot more generous towards areas which have been starved of investment for decades.  It means we revive the coast, we revive towns like Kilmarnock, we make it extremely attractive for people to come here and invest.  These are economic decisions, not things we are incapable of doing.  We do not need fracking.  We do not want fracking.  We want our place in the world, and we want to stop listening to people who are only filling their own pockets at our expense.