Andrew wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Ian Jackson wrote

Most of the fervent YES supporters seem convinced that total
independence will mean a land of milk and honey

That is essentially what Norway got.

Norway started as a very poor,

That isnt very accurate.

rural backwater

Yes. But it wasn't like that in the viking era.

with none of the overstaffed, worn out relics of the UKs industrial
revolution that made the world what it is today !. They started with a
clean sheet of paper,

No they did not.

but in 50 years time they will regret not looking at what has happened to
Luton and Bradford before they embarked on a typically-socialist open
doors immigration policies.

We'll see...

Not everywhere that went to a open door immigration
policy ended up with anything like Luton or Bradford.

In 1990 I travelled around NZ and met up with a couple of Norwegian SAS
employees, one an air-hostess, the other back-office. The latter lady
remembers as a young child her parents were too poor to buy shoes for her.
Suddenly this country of 3 million people inherited a vast fortune.

And so has Scotland.

Meanwhile across the North Sea we had 58 million people, a massive,
historic armed forces, huge state-run industries making vast losses every
year. Millions of under and unemployed souls. Tens of millions of days
lost to strikes every year. North Sea oil and a change of government gave
the UK a one-off chance to sort out the problems of post-empire
de-industrialisation.

One of those casualties was the Scottish rust belt. Many people think Mrs
T was responsible for that, but who could blame her ?.

There is no evidence that Maggy was personally responsible
for any of that. The most you can claim for any politician is
that they were certainly responsible for what happened at the
start of WW1 and WW2 and the immigration policy, but that
other stuff is WAY outside what any politician gets any say on.

Scotland, like Wales and the North of England was where all her political
enemies reside. Why would she help these people ?.

She didn't help anyone except arguably by forcing councils
to sell council houses etc to the current tenants etc.

And in any case it was world econonomics, a glut of steel and coal, and
the Common MArket Coal and Steel policies that made the heavy industries
contract.

Yep, nothing to do with any politician. The most they ever
get to do is react to stuff like that, they never drive it.

Even if Mrs T had never won in 1979, ed Milipedes 2008 Climate change act
would have shut them all down - just look at Didcot power station as an
example.

Sure.

And it was Glasgow city council who, in the 70's and 80's demolished vast
areas of the city centre in favout of a series of concrete soviet-style
tower blocks at ?Easterhouse.

Yes, that sort of thing certainly is done by politicians.

And after the miners strike, never again would Mrs T allow an elected
government (Ted Heath) be brought down by unelected trades unions.

But to get back to the original, Scotland could well end up as a land of
milk and honey due to north sea oil and gas alone, just like Norway has.
In a way that even the worst of the pollys like Salmon couldn't **** up.