Referendum on Scottish Independence

[Quackers]

Hm, maybe.. Although Al Darling was in Blair's inner circle too, wasn't he?

He was the chancellor under Gordan Brown's doomed few years as PM.
I actually quite like Darling. He has his head fitted firmly on his shoulders.

Not even the vicious cybernats can bring up the bile to go for him.

 

[Quackers]

I finally voted in the poll and went for UK + no.

Look, Scotland going alone is possible. I think it could be a decent little state. Yet there are no certainties on currency, the EU and the public debt. My natural conservatism tells me there is little to gain and lots to lose.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Your own country's self interest should make you vote that way. Our independence will reduce you to a second rate European power, take away your oil, throw off your balance of trade and humiliate your elite.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Not even the vicious cybernats can bring up the bile to go for him.

Not even the vicious cybernats can bring up the bile to go for him.

@Kyriakos, 'Cybernats' is a term invented by the British to smear Scottish independence supporters. In the 1970s when Scottish independence-supporters first started posing a ballot box threat the BBC (and others) tried their best to depict them as terrorists, a tactic that is now implausible--but the current term 'cybernat' evokes a dark other that good respectable people should fear.

This is the kind of thing we have to put up with.

 

[Traitorfish]

To be fair, "cybernats" are a real thing, it's just that they're actually an army of cybernetically-enhanced Highlanders in a secret warehouse under Edinburgh Castle, which Generalissimo Salmond will unleash upon the country in the event of his victory.

Yeah, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer for a long time (2nd most important post). They had to find a scott to run the No campaign, and they were not going to find one of those in the Tory party

It's really pretty telling that the best candidate they could find for the job was Darling. He was very senior, yes, but also very unpopular, and not a person with very strong roots in Scottish politics. It would have made more sense to pick a Labour politician with stronger local ties, but the association between the No campaign and the Tory government means that no really credible Scottish Labour politician was going to hoist that albatross around their neck. The only thing that Darling brings to the table is that because we all know he's never going to hold government office again, his involvement doesn't look like naked careerism.

My honest suspicion is that he was picked not because he has even the barest appeal to Scots voters, but because the Westminster establishment wanted reassurance that their man was at the wheel.

 

[salty mud]

Your own country's self interest should make you vote that way. Our independence will reduce you to a second rate European power, take away your oil, throw off your balance of trade and humiliate your elite.

So that would make you a third rate European power, right?

 

[Pangur Bán]

To be fair, "cybernats" are a real thing, it's just that they're actually an army of cybernetically-enhanced Highlanders in a secret warehouse under Edinburgh Castle, which Generalissimo Salmond will unleash upon the country in the event of his victory.

Indeed. There is no denying that there are guys on the internet who support independence and who are rude.

I once posted on the Better Together facebook page calling Salmond a tartan Pol Pol Cyberdictator who made me cringe; thought I was insulting them with mockery, but got 20-odd likes (almost entirely from users with 'naw' on their pictures or with union jacks or with other military or Ulster Unionist imagery).

 

[Quackers]

Your own country's self interest should make you vote that way. Our independence will reduce you to a second rate European power, take away your oil, throw off your balance of trade and humiliate your elite.

I wouldn't mind it. The UK has already changed the world for the good. Now it is our retirement.

@Kyriakos, 'Cybernats' is a term invented by the British to smear Scottish independence supporters. In the 1970s when Scottish independence-supporters first started posing a ballot box threat the BBC (and others) tried their best to depict them as terrorists, a tactic that is now implausible--but the current term 'cybernat' evokes a dark other that good respectable people should fear.

A simple portmanteau of "cyber" and "nationalists". It is just borne out of the observation that in real life the nationalists and unionsts are reasonable. Once you get a nationalist online, he equips his Satire avatar and turns into a nutter

This is the kind of thing we have to put up with.

Undeserved victimhood isn't an attractive quality in anything.

 

[bhsup]

Is this referendum going to ruin any chances of the BBC bringing back Monarch of the Glen?

 

[warpus]

My main concern is that it's going to mess up this again and probably make it even more confusing:

 

[Pangur Bán]

A simple portmanteau of "cyber" and "nationalists". It is just borne out of the observation that in real life the nationalists and unionsts are reasonable.

That's its etymology, but its application is broader (as you are smart enough to know already and as Traitorfish has already illustrated through caricature):

http://wingsoverscotland.com/cybernats-and-phantoms/

It's a catchy term by which the British (establishment) demonize the base of a threatening political movement. The reason why that is important is because the movement is almost entirely grassroots, has little access to establishment patronage, and the key to its success is therefore to make the 'ordinary voter' identity themselves with these grassroots rather than said establishment and its institutions.

 

[really]

I finally voted in the poll and went for UK + no.

Look, Scotland going alone is possible. I think it could be a decent little state. Yet there are no certainties on currency, the EU and the public debt. My natural conservatism tells me there is little to gain and lots to lose.

In fairness there aren't any certainties on the EU if they vote to stay in the UK either.

 

[Farm Boy]

So that would make you a third rate European power, right?

Just one more protectorate under our nuclear umbrella?

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Is this referendum going to ruin any chances of the BBC bringing back Monarch of the Glen?

It's gone, man. Let it be.

 

[Antilogic]

Man, I just realized if this vote succeeds then the English will have their own Canada.

 

[bhsup]

For those that don't really get that...

Spoiler :

 

[Antilogic]

I don't know if I can support the proliferation of Canadas in this world, 'fraid I'm going to have to lean no on this whole Scottish independence/hathood thing.

 

[Cutlass]

What would Russia have to do to have a Canadian style hat?

 

[bhsup]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-up_map_orientation

Afghanistan hat!

 

[Zack]

Man, I just realized if this vote succeeds then the English will have their own Canada.

Although, Canada and the US share a common language. I'm not convinced they speak English in Scotland.