Independence for Scotland was regarded as a racing certainty if Boris and pro-Brexiteers won the election. The SNP took 47 out of 59 Scottish seats which seemed to seal the deal but sober economic assessment hints the prospects are not good, never mind Boris digging in his heels about another referendum. Over 60pc of Scottish exports go to the rest of the UK with just 18pc to the EU; Scotland’s public expenditure per head is significantly higher than the whole of the UK giving it a budget deficit of 7pc of GDP compared to 1.1pc for the UK.
From an economic point of view the situation has deteriorated since the last referendum in 2014. The costs would be prohibitive with at least a decade of financial trauma, welfare cuts, and systemic austerity on a staggering scale to follow any breakaway.
Which isn’t to say Nicola Sturgeon will throw in the towel. Her Cancer Sun square Jupiter is catching the tr Pluto hard aspects to both 2021 to 2023 which will see her revved up and raring to go.
She’s a mighty antagonist for Boris with her Pluto in Virgo squaring his Sun Venus; and her determined Saturn in Taurus conjunct his Jupiter and opposition his Neptune – she’ll tussle endlessly with him and rain on his parade.
The Scotland 16 March 842 AD JC chart worked well on Scotland’s entry into the 1707 merger with England (see post November 3 2019). It indicates confusion and indecision with tr Neptune square the Solar Arc Pluto and Sun in 2020 and more as Solar Arc Neptune is conjunct the Sun in 2021. And nothing much of note thereafter, certainly nothing as significant as the 1707 marriage between the two countries.
The 1 May 1707 Scotland Act which started the new partnership does have tr Uranus conjunct the Taurus Sun and square Pluto and Jupiter in 2020/21 so there may be movement towards an adjustment in the terms of agreement but nothing as major as a separation. Tr Uranus has been round every 84 years and nothing split on those occasions.
The relationship chart between Scotland 842 and the UK is also showing signs of turbulence and a shift between 2020 and 2022. But again nothing likely to lead to a complete split away.
Belle, Thanks for that very moderated response. I must admit to being almost at the end of my elastic when it comes to Scotland posts. I have tended to avoid them because there’s always this blinkered cybernat-ish deluge that comes in response, blowing out of the water any notion that there might be alternative opinions – and suggesting the astrology is being manipulated to produce a result that isn’t what they want to hear.
I tolerate a degree of political comment but only up to a point and some of that is to illuminate how stuck some are in their mindset – for example pro—Trumpers.
However, as I say, I’m out of patience. One of my New Year resolution is to use the site blocker on post-persons who become too irksome.
Yes Marjorie very badly worded indeed. So correction. What I meant to get across is that Scotland with 1% of the EU population (8 / 9% of the UK population) is estimated to be the largest oil producer and second largest gas producer in the EU. The gist however is to point out that Scotland is not too poor to go it alone. Far from it. You just have to compare and contrast Scotland (5 million pop) with many successful countries who produce little energy, such as Finland heavily reliant on importing (and therefore paying for) from Russia, to see how wealthy Scotland would be if it wasn’t shackled to England (50 million pop).
This is an alternative fact from Jim Rodgers who doesn’t have an axe to grind. In other words, his opinion isn’t driven by emotion.
”Without Scotland (oil), little England doesn’t have much to sell to the outside world anymore.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYzvUpoRsCU
I understand patriotic feeling, and wanting your country to be seen as one of the best, but some of your posts are truly bizarre.
Scottish people have plenty of things to feel proud of, plenty of things to love about their country. Scotland can certainly survive as an independent country, albeit in reduced circumstances – but maybe thats okay, maybe thats worth it to stand alone as a country. Be proud of who and what Scotland is instead of peddling conspiracy theories.
Who exactly is providing people with the “sober economic assessment that hints that Scotland’s (economic) prospects aren’t good? The Westminster controlled media?
Scotland could be one of the richest countries in the world, FAR richer than rUK, if it had control over its own economy. Westminster still has control of over 85% of Scottish powers, including our energy, employment law, broadcasting and so on.
And how on earth can Scotland be deemed to be poor when Scotland with 1% of the EU population is the EU’s number one oil provider and second largest gas provider. Scotland also provides the EU with 25% of it’s wind energy resource, 25% of tidal energy resource and 10% of wave energy resource. These renewable energy industries are also in their infancy. And just to add that we don’t see one penny of our oil revenue as Westminster has cunningly deemed our oil to be placed in an area known as the extra-regio region. It’s also totally mismanaged Scotlands oil industry to the point that Scotland is the only country to find oil, other than Iraq, and have no oil fund. All of our energy revenues, for example from the EU, also get fired into the London Treasury.
When it comes to the UK food and drink industry Scottish whisky alone accounts for 25% of the UK’s F&D exports. Scottish salmon the number one foodstuff. And I could literally go on and on outlining one product / industry after another highlighting how successful Scotland is to the point that it’s the only country in the UK that exports more than it imports. The latter accounting, to a great extent, for the debt that Westminster has wracked up.
England also exports more to Scotland than vice versa, so are we to think that English businesses will no longer trade with us? That won’t go down well either with the EU if England had to behave like that. Are we to imagine that England will no longer want our energy exported south of the border. If that were the case their lights would go out overnight. Take a look at the Republic of Ireland’s practically total dependency on trading with England before they gained their independence and where it is now.
The “budget deficit” that you quote Marjory relates to Scotland being part of the Union, not of an independent Scotland, as one example do you really think that we’re going to continue to fork out £billions to “house” and maintain nuclear weapons and subs that we don’t want?
I also see that you’ve used the 842 and 1707 charts. The 1005 and 1801 charts are usually the most commonly used Scottish / Union charts used by astrologers. I wonder how they look?
If the Scottish charts, that you have used, aren’t looking good that may be accounted for by us being dragged out of Europe against our will with totally independent economists stating that 100,000 jobs are going to be lost in Scotland due to the behaviour of the narcissistic despot in London. Belonging to a party that the Scots haven’t voted for since 1955. How bad is that?
http://www.businessforscotland.com/new-figures-show-scotland-is-leading-the-renewable-energy-revolution/
Shirley, Where did you get these stats about Scotland being the EU’s biggest oil provider and No 2 for natural gas? See below.
The bulk of EU oil imports originate from Russia, other FSU countries, and the Middle East and North Africa. http://energyfuse.org/europes-oil-import-dilemma
Russia and Norway remained the key natural gas suppliers to the European Union, with a 39% and 27% share of supply, respectively. Combined, they provided almost 2/3 of all natural gas supplied to EU countries.
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/oil-and-gas/our-insights/petroleum-blog/how-did-the-european-natural-gas-market-evolve-in-2018
Shirley, you have flagged up some important points. Scots are not going away quietly on this issue of independence and if only some joined up thinking would be exercised across the board and not cherry picking. The SNP have several mandates now. Nearly every if not all of the parties in Scotland ran on an anti-independence, anti-(supposedly)Nicola’s-independence stance as a single issue campaign and they lost resoundingly. Hence why Labour in Scotland and UK is shifting their position on Scottish indy to be more on the supportive side. We know Brexit and the Trump presidency are connected to the same underhanded dealings. There is no doubt that Republican’s in the US are currently running Russian propaganda talking points, points on Ukraine being to blame for the election interference into the 2016 election and not Russia. Intelligence experts have all dismissed this as a clear Russian ploy. How do these things connect to Scotland? Well the Brexit campaign was run on massive disinformation, manipulation and dark money influx scale. How far gone the UK is into constitutional crisis is yet to be determined but if the likes of Farage is being knighted for having his already near obsolete MPs stand down for a Tory win, and Johnson and co ignore nearly all tradition of the Parliament, a parliament whose very ability to continue to function relies on the respecting of tradition, not to mention the drastic changing of rules and laws to avoid the legal check and balance, things are bleak indeed. The UK has been being purposely weakened and assets dismantled under these successive Tory Govts. US companies want to see bigger profit margins than EU regulations will allow them. The ERG and self serving folk like Theresa May are quite happy to be Thatcher 2.0 disciples to the cause of their own profit (May family weapons deals) and under a zealotous banner of the long gone exceptionalism and cause of an Empire that no longer exists. The possible trade deals from a 65 million population (little UK) vs 500 million (EU) is simple maths. A quick look at the history of trade deals means prognosis: bad. Scottish folk and the neighbours and friends I know are not about to lay down and accept this as the ok new norms. Diminished or obsolete hard faught for rights, collapse of the welfare state, cruel backwards looking policy – Prominent Scottish Sociologists that have studied Scottish Identity and Social gut for decades, have made it clear that when the UK values more aligned with Scottish values such as welfare state, working together as a community in war time, looking out for each other and being more outward looking, Scotland had a place in the UK more or less and was willing to stick around to try and work things out. But not now. With Brexit, the fundamental nature of the UK has changed. (significant material change – it was in the SNP manifesto) The strength of the SNP is often completely mis understood. One does not need to be an academic to understand there are different types of nationalism. Scottish nationalism is not an ethnic nationalism but a civic nationalism – and follows the strength of Scottish identity values, community, egalitarian mindedness, outward looking etc and has been evidenced in academic work going back 1000 years in Scotland. Before the union, and this character gut identity will well outlast Brexit and is in fact rising up in clear opposition of all that Brexit and now the UK stands for. You only need read history and to be looking aboot ye the now to see that. It is only a matter of time as the values of the UK and Scotland become more at odds with each other. The fiscal case for indy has been made many times over and it is crazy to see that still being peddled. But I would never bet against the bleeding heart of what is now in the Scottish DNA and in the hearts of every new Scot that is drawn to live in this welcoming nation to act on the principles of the unique Scottish form of civic nationalism.
Nicola Sturgeon is surely aware of the financial implications of Scottish Independence, no? And yet she continues to push for a second referendum, perhaps assuming, hoping, it will not be granted. Looks like grandstanding to me, in the same way she demanded a second referendum from then Prime Minister May the morning of the Article 50 invocation letter being delivered to Donald Tusk.
No grandstanding is needed – she is acutely aware of the catastrophic economic implications of Brexit on Scotland and on the rest of the UK and she has a mandate from the people who live in Scotland – were you aware of that? Also it does read like you think she do nothing as we head into this mess because in your view it’s all grandstanding – I’m not sure the people who live in Scotland would be ok with that – might be time to educate yourself – there is more to life than what’s written in the stars
Graham, I’m not sure it’s grandstanding so much – though she is a consummate politician – more that emotion obliterates everything else. Any alternative opinions/facts are trashed as irrelevant/malign/factually inaccurate. See above and below.
You mean there are alternative facts? Facts like the economic chaos that Brexit will cause to Scotland – these are not opinions they are facts. Umbrella throwaway comments like ‘grandstanding’ allows for these facts to be considered irrelevant and inconvenient. I am not trashing anything just taking issue with the terminology and also make sure you consider your own emotions on this issue because as you rightly point out it obliterates and trashes all
other views
I think it’s interesting that his Saturn is close to her north node.