So the Scots vote No on Thursday, how would you vote

[BES]

"Hello All",

I know that this will probably result in Me being ridiculed and I obviously do know the basic principle of a `Democratic Vote`:

I realise that there had to be a way of finding out Public opinion in Scotland about becoming `Independent` from the rest of the UK and that this is why a Referendum was put in place.

BUT - now that the Opinion Polls are showing almost a 50 / 50 Split YES / NO to the Scottish Independence question would it really be a `Fair Result` if YES was voted by 51% to 49% ?

IF that happens this `Democratic Vote` would impose the Result on virtually HALF the population who do NOT want that result.

Would HALF of ANY Group of People be happily resigned to the result of a `Fair Vote` about something as important as this going against their wishes / opinions ?

The idea of `Majority Rule` in any situation would not make for a satisfied group of People if the result was 51% / 49% - there would be too many dissatisfied People !

I would have thought that there should have been a Vote in Scotland to see what percentage of the population supported `Scottish Independence` and then IF the result showed a SIGNIFICANT percentage wanted it a Referendum would follow to then sign the will of a SIGNIFICANT majority into Law / Legislate for Scottish Independence.

Personally I don`t feel that Scotland should become Independent on a VERY small percentage - IF the `YES` vote wins - because it will be against the wishes of almost HALF the population.

What do other Members think about my comments ?

Regards,

Chris

I'm hoping for a scottish civil war friday.

 

[Slowhand]

I don't care, I just wish they'd shut up about it.

 

[chris murphy]

"Hello again",


I am hoping for some replies / comments from our Members in Scotland.

Regards,

Chris

 

[Octopus]

"Hello again",


I am hoping for some replies / comments from our Members in Scotland.

Regards,

Chris

I thought this thread may get more comments full stop!

 

[trev]

Chris I'm not a Scot but in response to your 51/49% question.
What do you call a clear majority? I'd say 2% more represents that.
If you don't agree then where are you going to draw the line and why? Why would, for arguments sake, 67.3% be more palatable than 50.9%
If more people want something than don't then they get it. That's the way a democratic society is supposed to work except in the case of our general elections where historically parties have gained power despite effectively more voting against them than for them.

 

[Dcf]

I'm hoping for a scottish civil war friday.

Nice one bes
you were better when you danced with the happy Mondays
rather than "comedian"

 

[trev]

Bad news mate, that was Bez. Not Bes.

 

[Dcf]

Bad news mate, that was Bez. Not Bes.

I know trev.
close enough for me

 

[chris murphy]

Chris I'm not a Scot but in response to your 51/49% question.
What do you call a clear majority? I'd say 2% more represents that.
If you don't agree then where are you going to draw the line and why? Why would, for arguments sake, 67.3% be more palatable than 50.9%
If more people want something than don't then they get it. That's the way a democratic society is supposed to work except in the case of our general elections where historically parties have gained power despite effectively more voting against them than for them.

"Hello Trev",

Thanks for your reply / comments.

I did write in the first paragraph of my first Post on this that obviously I know about the `Democratic Vote` principle - and I cannot disagree with anything that You wrote - I was expecting exactly those and similar comments.

I am NOT trying to be pedantic with these `Guesstimates` Trev - just debating / `reinforcing my point`:

There obviously IS a VERY big difference between a Vote of 67.3% and 50.9% in terms of how many Scottish people would be satisfied / dissatisfied.

I think that the population of Scotland is approximately 5 Million [?] - I have not checked the number of people eligible to vote but on the National Average basis that approximately 20% of people are under 16 Years old - and GUESSING that at least 15% of people will NOT Vote [?] - that leaves 3.5 Million votes [Guesstimate].

I am guessing that there will be a very big percentage of eligible voters voting on this Referendum because of the importance / historical significance [?].

IF all of those 3.5 Million votes were cast:

67.3% would be 2355500 votes.

50.9% would be 1781500 votes.

The difference being 574000 votes - a significant number of People.

Although I do take your point that this would still leave the 32.7% balance of Voters dissatisfied = 1144500 People.


As I mentioned I cannot refute any of your comments but I still feel that to change something as important as the `United Kingdom` a much higher majority should have been found BEFORE deciding on the Referendum - in MY opinion perhaps as high as at least 60% + in favour of Scottish Independence.

Regards,

Chris

 

[trev]

But why is 60% acceptable when 50.1% represents a majority?
In your scenario then if 59% vote in favour then the majority of people are not going to get what they vote in favour of.
Liken that to the promised in/out referendum on EU membership (which will probably never happen) If the majority voted one way and the government decided to ignore them or moved the goalposts it would be inviting civil unrest and possible anarchy.
Another one could be a vote in the commons, a majority is represented by 327 MPs. If the government goes against them and declares that it is not a viable majority then they are no different from some tinpot dictator in a banana republic.
Either we have a democratic society which goes with the will of the majority or we do not, a majority is a majority.

 

[Diddy]

I have always though that since we had devolved powers the Scottish Mp's should not be able to vote on stuff that R-UK Mp's cant vote on in our country...like R-UK cant decide our health policy so we should have bugger all to do with yours...that kind of thing.

 

[Adam W]

The way I see it the outcome people wanted was yes or no. If neither side wins by more than, say, 2%, they should allow further campaigning and have another vote, or just recount all the votes to remove any question of a margin of error, and the winning campaign wins - if the Scotch react by having a civil war then that's their problem. It's 'yes' or 'no'. Not 'maybe'. Likewise in the last general election the winning party were the conservatives, followed by Labour. IMO that should have been the end of it - the party with the most votes should have got into power, not 'oh well it was a close one so we'll give it to the Lib Dems instead'.

Same with the EU referendum we were promised - it's 'in' or 'out'. In the event of a close call I don't expect to end up with 'shake it all about'.

 

[Octopus]

This is worth a read:

BBC News - Scottish or Catalan vote 'torpedoes EU', says Spain's Rajoy

 

[trev]

There's another one, More economic recession and poverty but no explanation how.

 

[Dcf]

This is worth a read:

BBC News - Scottish or Catalan vote 'torpedoes EU', says Spain's Rajoy

the bbc is hardly the orator of truth just now is it ?
so in the event of scotland being outside the eu where are all the spanish fisherman going to fish?
cos it will be our waters and not eu territory we could tell them to bolt.
and where does that leave the spanish fishing industry ?
another load of unsubstantiated rubbish.