HERE'S A VIEW OF THE FUTURE...

Alan is bang on about this.

After the vote, whatever it is, life will change.

IT IS NOT, AND NEVER HAS BEEN, A VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE v THE STATUS QUO.

It's important that everyone understand that.

If we vote yes, we are voting to take control of our own affairs; make laws for ourselves, albeit within the confines of membership of the UN, NATO, EU, Geneva Conventions, and many other international organisations (but not the thousands that Rennie suggested) which will make demands of and place constraints upon us.

We will make up our minds how much we tax, and in what way; whether our taxation will be progressive or regressive. We will decide what we can afford to spend on health and education, just like now, but without the constraints imposed by London. We will decide what we can borrow, unlike now when we quite simply cannot borrow.

We will decide what a minimum wage should be; we will decide what retirement pensions should be and how much we pay people when they cannot find work, or are too ill to work. We will decide our social security policy. Not some crook in London employing a bunch of target driven heartless venture capitalists.

We will decide how much electricity and gas should be allowed to increase; and what is to be done with the bonanza of cash that continues to accrue from the north Sea, and will do so for many decades yet. Will we spend it on war, and enriching the rich, or will we pay for decent retirement pensions, roads fit for the 20th, never mind the 21st century (a single carriage highway between the highland's two largest cities is beyond a joke, not to mention a deathtrap).

We will decide our own foreign policy; not Washington DC. We will decide whether or not to go to war in Muslim countries that have oil, and then, having killed and maimed, leave them in utter turmoil, the necessary contracts signed, the usual suspects many millions of dollars better off and of course the sleazy spiv with his Congressional Medal in pride of place on the mantlepiece. 

But what about the possibility that we will be persuaded by Alistair Carbuncle and Dearest Darling Alistair, not to mention the BBC, that, sole in Europe, we are too wee, too poor and too stupid to be left in charge of our own country; that we need the likes of David Cameron and George Osborne, or Nigel Farage and Iain Duncan Smith or even Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper to play the grown ups and make sure we don't do silly childish things?

What then?

Well, who knows, because they refuse to say.

The Electoral Commission demanded information be made available by both campaigns and set a deadline of mid winters day.

The Government responded by issuing 600+ pages of its vision for Scotland. Better Together responded by saying, erm, well we will look at some more powers; more responsibility; erm, but we can't say exactly what.

David Cameron asks you to trust him... Yes, the man whose middle names should have been U Turn and Liar, is asking you to trust him. 

Let's be honest, even his best friends wouldn't do that.

Already the English are demanding that the Barnett Formula be scrapped and payments made on the basis of need.

Need? 

Yes, need, as determined by Westminster's largely English MPs, who collectively seem to define "need" as their expenses and pay increase. But who are also in the process of privatising health and education in England, and who have already sold off just about everything England and Britain ever owned, including water.

Can you imagine it? Water, in Scotland, something for private industry to make money out of?

I agree with Alan. We will lose £4-£7 billion a year. 

Our Money! 

Money, you will remember, that we already MORE THAN pay to the UK. And we will be forced to sell off all the services we hold dear.

Your kids will be paying for their education until they are 50; at which point they will have to start saving up for old age care, because that will cost them dear. Hospitals will charge for a variety of operations and treatments. Your prescriptions will have to be paid for... and don't expect to finish work before you are 70... the list is endless and the prospects bleak.

What makes the English jealous of us now will disappear. And mainly because political parties mustn't upset the English voters. They, remember, decide who will govern; who will sit at the feet of the president and who will get congressional medals.

And what does Labour say to all this Tory right wing privatisation of everything that isn't nailed down, and most stuff that is?

Bravo! That's what they say. 

They want to be even harsher with Social Security. Ms Lamont (and presumably Ed) thinks we are a nations of scroungers who want something for nothing, so she won't be fighting our corner when the sick and thrown out on the street because they can't pay their rents. 

Ms Lamont wants rid of the Barnett Formula. She thinks Scotland gets too much money.. indeed, I seem to recall that Labour sent back money to England when they were in power, telling them we didn't need it. Obviously they don't get out much in Scotland.

Once they have, or think they have, put "independence" back in the box... they will do what they did before... collect up the money, put a new brand of nuclear weapon within 40 miles of Glasgow and give us as little as possible. (Addition/Correction: I  am obliged to Scaraben for a more accurate estimate of the distance from Glasgow in his post below. It seems that 40kms or 25 miles is closer to the relatiy.)

But mark my words. No matter what they do to us, we will NOT be allowed another referendum. We had to get permission for this one from our posh English overlord, Eton Boy. And no matter how the situation changes; no matter what they visit on us, we'll not be allowed another one.

So, if you are contemplating a no vote, remember that you are not voting for the status quo; remember all the promises that Alec Douglas Home and Mrs Thatcher made and remember you won't get another chance.