Will Scotland be an independent country?

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wangjingwanjia said:

Does any Scottish or British person know the reason for this? Has this been a long going debate for 300 years or did it just bloom up?

Someone said that Scotland wants to have the "oil rights", and this I have heard too. But I have also heard they want to join the Nordic council, is this true? If so, why? And do they really want to create a country by the model of Norway, with oil reserves? Anything else?

They want to keep the British money? What about the language and other things, are there any major changes that has been proposed for this?

Also, perhaps Scotland could be compared to Hong Kong, Åland, Greenland and/or Sint-Marteen. All are independent in one way but are controlled by Beijing/Helsinki/Copenhagen/Amsterdam in the end. Perhaps not the best comparison, but similar I suppose.

Well, honestly this has been an issue for about 1000 years.

Scotland currently enjoys some independence from Westminster, it wants full independence.  Currently taxation is controlled by Westminster, where in the House of Commons, the overwhelming majority of MPs come from England.  So while Scotland contributes more than it's fair share in revenue, it has no say in what that revenue will be or how it will be spent.  It harkens back to the old colonial days in the Americas where colonists fought against taxation without representation and unfair revenue distribution. 

One reseaon why the colonies refused the crowns offer for representation was that raw materials still had to be sent to the UK, converted to goods, and then sent back to the colonies.  Thus inflating the cost of goods and putting all the revenue back into the UK.

The Bedroom Tax is the current hotbed issue.  Westminster imposed the Bedroom Tax on Scotland in an effort to collect revenue to offset expensures for housing costs, whereby council housing tenants who have a spare room are charged a 14% tax.  Two, and a tenant loses 25% of their benefit.  Likewise back in the 1980's the disasterous Poll Tax was imposed whereby tenants were taxed based on the number of people occupying the residence.

Back in the 1970's, after oil was discovered in the North Sea (Scottish waters) the question was once again raised about Scottish independence.  Scottish MPs force a review, which both the Labour and Conservative Party held from public knowledge that suggested that Scotland could in fact easily become independent based on oil revenues alone at the time.  The outlook is bleaker today than it was back then, but based on some projects Scotland has about 24 years to bankroll revenues from oil.

England, for its part, has more to lose from Scotland going independent than Scotland does.  Right now, Scotland contributes more to UK revenues than Scotland receives.  If Scotland became an independent country, than England, Wales, and Northern Ireland would have to make up for the shortfall in revenue.

Scotland would likely remain a member of the Common Wealth, and more than likely would remain a member of NATO, despite the suggestion that Scotland would close British bases and or have nuclear missles removed.