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Thank you all for the time you’ve taken to reply to my posts and offer alternative views and information.

I have spent many, many hours over the last year trying to figure out what the real situation is around the referendum debate, and have finally come to the conclusion that it is a futile exercise. A phrase from one of the Harry Potter films sums it up when someone said something like “many things are spoken, but whether the truth lies among them remains unclear”.

Fact, lies, deceit and spin are all mixed up in a hopeless muddle from all sides. While a lot that is spouted (especially by rank and file campaigners) is rubbish or unsupported emotional aspirations, a lot more, if you dig down, does appear to be credible proven fact with authoritative sources. Even that however is normally presented out of context, and / or ignoring other factors which turn out to be crucial to understanding their true implication. I (along with, I suspect, nearly everyone else in Scotland) have neither the knowledge nor the experience to be able to identify reliably what is spin and what is real and balanced information. And now, I don’t have the time either as my life has changed (for the better!) and for the next few months, my days will be very full. And it scares me that most of the politicians themselves probably have no more of a balanced understanding of the implications than anyone else – they’re too busy finding ways of presenting things to suit their own biased agenda.

I do not see how things are going to get any clearer, since it is the nature of politics that nobody is interested in presenting a balanced picture. They are only interested in finding ways of convincing the voters to see things their way, and will do whatever they can get away with to achieve their ends, skillfully blending real facts with half truths, spin and selective information. I ask myself what is likely to be achieved by more endless debate re-covering the same points over and over again in the same inadequate way. And I conclude that it’s a waste of time.

So how can I decide which way to vote?

Since I’ve got absolutely no idea what an independent Scotland will be like to live in – whether it will be better or worse, a success or a catastrophe, I’ve nothing to base a decision on except gut instinct, which is totally the wrong way for us to decide. So, unless something happens between now and the referendum to give me real, balanced answers to a lot of the unknowns (and that seems extremely unlikely!), I’m going to be forced to come down firmly on the ‘no’ side.

I’ll put my reasons why ‘no’ in a separate post in due course. But it is with reluctance, because I love Scotland, its culture, its people, its music. I was born and have lived all my life here, with roots all over Scotland, from Orkney, Caithness and the west coast (and some from England and overseas as well). It would be great to be part of a proud independent country making its way in the world, prosperous, generous and becoming a role model for other small countries. But I have no confidence that things would turn out that way. This is the reason I’ve spent so much time and effort trying to get to the bottom of all the spin – trying to convince myself that I should support independence. Sadly, I have failed.

Disco_Mikey wrote:

The No campaign say don't go, it won't work, with no real explanation...

IFS wrote:

An independent Scotland would require a significant cut in spending or increase in taxes, over and above that already announced by the UK government, in order to put their long-term public finances onto a sustainable footing. The scale of this fiscal tightening is likely to be greater than that required for the UK as a whole.
Even under the most optimistic scenario we consider, the long-run ‘fiscal gap’ in Scotland would be 1.9% of national income compared to 0.8% of national income for the UK as a whole.

Disco_Mikey wrote:

While I am still a No, it's easy to see why more and more people are changing to Yes

Disco_Mikey wrote:

The Yes crowd keep comparing us to Norway, telling us how well they are doing being independent.

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An independent Scotland could chose to invest in a similar fund.

 Black 05 TDV6 HSE Auto
Grey 05 TDV6 HSE Auto (Gone)
54 TDV6 SE Man (killed by me ) 

haroosh wrote:

I did wonder when Tommy would jump on the band wagon....
I'm afraid I'm really not interested in anything he says....

A closed mind....excellent.

haroosh wrote:

I did wonder when Tommy would jump on the band wagon....
I'm afraid I'm really not interested in anything he says....

True he is a wa r