Scotland/Sturgeon

Well there you go!! Ok if it goes the 'right' way however narrow the margin, but curiously not ok if it doesn't! very strange!

You voted Brexit and I'm paying for it
Nearly half of us didn't.
You can please some of the people all of the time etc etc etc.

Would probably never buy a handbag in Florence, and I think many of the UK population are thankful that we never joined the Euro.

I do have a few redundant francs, kuna, markka, peseta hanging around in the drawer somewhere, but no lira sadly.

I am sorry about your pension MargaretX but it works both ways too, as visitors here or people who are paid in currencies other than £sterling have found to their advantage.

AS an exiled Scot, with family living in Scotland, I can assure you that not all Scots support Nicola Sturgeon. the SNP and their policy of independence. The points made by some on here are pertinent, why would a country cry for independence, for the right to self governance and then wish to align itself to the EU, a far bigger group of countries than the four in Great Britain? Also, apart from the absolute dog's breakfast of having different currencies,taxation, trade deals etc, the simple fact is that Alex Salmond based his fanciful projections on prices per barrel on oil which are seriously reduced on the world markets now. I have seen a scary similarity between the SNP and the Cabal who ran and then ran way from the Brexit fiasco. Alex Salmond with his trite 'yes we can' and the Brexit tean with their 'take back control'. This country cannot be run on slogans, and just because you keep saying things over and over, and just because you may convince some of the more gullible part of the electorate, doesnt make it true.

Hear hear Gill!

Has the UK felt itself to be "shackled" to the EU all this time? And has it felt itself not to be independent?
If it was so bad, surely no-one would have voted Remain.

I can't speak for all that voted to Leave, but amongst the ones I know, yes, a resounding yes, we have felt to be shackled to the EU for all this time.

For me personally, felt about 2/3 independent and one 1/3 not.

It has felt worse in say the last 5-7 years, than it was previously.
Previously, some of their rulings just appeared a bit silly, but the last few years, the rulings have got more serious.

Gill and Jane. To me, NS always seesm like she is speaking for the majority of Scots. When clearly, she may not be.

For me the Common Market started so well, so full of hope and enthusiasm, and for years it was just fine and worked well for everyone, but then doubt crept in starting with an uneasiness over Maastricht. Since then, but particularly in the last ten years, a definite feeling of uncertainty has crept more and more into my mind, till,just like a good marriage turned sour, given the chance, I felt we needed to get out of it and so I voted leave!

Obieone NS absolutely is not speaking for all of us! SNP lost its majority in the last election. All but constituencies in Strathclyde and Dundee voted NO to independence. She conveniently forgets that.

For the record, 'shackled' is a word used by SNP, not by me, I do not think that being a member of the EU is being shackled to anything. I voted Remain and I am getting increasingly irritated by Ms Sturgeon's wild and inaccurate claims that Scotland wanted to stay...actually it was about 65% I believe, hardly a full house. She will use anything, any lever to get what she wants to further her own career. On that basis, my village voted resoundingly to remain ( friend saw the pile of votes at count), London voted overwhelmingly to remain, should we all do a Passport to Pimlico?

Nicola Sturgeon is a very slick politician, able to talk the talk and divert attention from her failure to deliver. The SNP regime had been disatrous for Scotland - police, education, health service have all been damaged by SNP incompetence.

So true varian!

For me the Common Market started so well, so full of hope and enthusiasm, and for years it was just fine and worked well for everyone
I think it never worked that well, nigglynellie - remember the over-production of food resulting in 'wine lakes', 'butter mountains' etc

Oversupply and its redistribution
To perpetuate the viability of European agriculture in its current state, the CAP-mandated demand for certain farm produce is set at a high level compared with demand in the free market (see § CAP as a form of state intervention). This leads to the European Union purchasing millions of tonnes of surplus output every year at the stated guaranteed market price, and storing this produce in large quantities (leading to what critics have called 'butter mountains' and 'milk lakes'), before selling the produce wholesale to developing nations. In 2007 in response to a parliamentary written question the UK government revealed that over the preceding year the EU Public Stock had amassed "13,476,812 tonnes of cereal, rice, sugar and milk products and 3,529,002 hectolitres of alcohol/wine", although the EU has claimed this level of oversupply is unlikely to be repeated. This point was actually proven in January 2009, where the EU had a store of 717,810 tonnes of cereals, 41,422 tonnes of sugar and a 2.3 million hectolitre 'wine lake', showing that the stocks had diminished dramatically.
The food crisis in 2008, which saw the stocks empty out and the prices skyrocket, even introduced a popular demand for the introduction of emergency stocks of agricultural produce in the EU, which would help stabilise prices both on the very volatile markets

Too much interference or a sensible approach to stabilising the markets? It could be argued either way, but it does mean a high level of interference in agricultural policy.

It strikes me as strange that in SNP World "Remain means Remain " as far as the EU Referendum is concerned but "No doesn't mean No" with regard to the Scottish referendum in 2014. Sturgeon and co need to get on with governing our country rather than obsessing about another Scottish Referendum.

Should have listen to Tony Benn in the first place! Saved ourselves a load of trouble!!

Ah Tony Benn. He'd have something to say about what's currently going on! I like Hilary Benn.

Beth61. Quite.

Not sure what some posts have to do with the subject of Scotland, but MargaretX we cannot run things here in the UK for the benefit of Brits who have chosen to make another country their home, in your case Germany, and for Felice France.

I do think Tony Benn had other ideals, ie better links with the Soviet Union rather than the EU.
Someone will probably dispute that, it is only a viewpoint, not a fact.

rosesarered that is a very good point.
People who emigrated to Australia many, many years ago have had no increase whatsoever on their pensions and the fluctuating exchange rate has had effects on what they receive.
Don't people factor all those possibilities in when they choose to live abroad?