Should Scotland be an independent country?

Better, I submit, than drowning.

I'm driving up to Edinburgh on Saturday to get a better idea of where to rent for the next six months

Have you got a short list of areas?

Westerhailes, Saughton..

if something cool came up in Peebles I can't say I wouldn't snap it up

There's a great Honda dealer there, very helpful and honest.

You realise it's where people from Edinburgh go to retire though (this fact probably not unrelated)?

There are some stunning places to stay there mind. Other half's uncle has a flat with pretty much the highest ceilings I've ever seen which is probably bigger than our entire house. And literally minutes from some great lanes.

Have you got a short list of areas?

Somewhere within walking distance of the middle, really. The idea behind heading up would be to get a better idea of the various areas, insofar as that's possible from wandering around after work of course.

just pick somewhere with a bross brothers imo (i.e. leith/merchiston/stockbridge) - likely to be a high concentration of nice flats, delis, wine shops, etc nearby. we drove through portobello on sunday - seemed nice. not walking distance from the centre though

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Unfortunately not within reasonable walking distance of the centre, would otherwise be perfect of course.

just pick somewhere with a bross brothers

Haha, spot on! Anywhere on that map would do it really. Porty is nice - and I controversially had a hot dog from the Bross Bros there the other week - but according to our lesbian friends in Swanston (well it's greater Oxgangs really unless you're actually in the village up the hill) there are too many lesbians there and not enough good schools.

I can recommend Porty baths but honestly it's a bit of a pain to get into town.

This

I can recommend Porty baths but honestly it's a bit of a pain to get into town

Why would anyone swim in Porty baths when you can just get changed there and swim off the beach outside?

Kids

Was nothing but kids in the Forth this afternoon.

No water?

None.

Never been there in summer, I suppose, but just go out a bit deeper. Kids tend to congregate in the first 10 yards from shore.

Crackin summer

Back to the sums.. Ms Forbes comments today that an independent Scotland would be better placed to economically recover from COVID (without providing any detail as to how) seem strange.
John Ferry's piece from April sets out succinctly the challenges facing a newly independent Scotland with a 25% budget deficit and a newly set up lender of last resort. Strangely the SNP have yet to share their updated plans for a central bank and details of how the levers of monetary policy would be exercised.

https://archive.is/xQiAP

Kate forbes is a diddy, they also say that much that you forgot the other nonsense they talk. You'd also think someone who was a chartered accountant would be good with figures too.

Putting in a ton of parking meters in Glasgow right now in residential areas under the "commuters parking in the area" but actually the snp council at the money grab again.

Turkish baths! The last original ones left in Scotland I think with a proper plunge pool (which nobody seems to build any more because people are wimps).

I think it costs about £7 too?

Also most people are not as hardcore as you and Scotland is cold 10 months of the year :P

@dammit ?

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Ms Forbes ventures through the looking glass. The great refresh.

“In terms of the alternative case I do think that we need to refresh our economic prospectus as other countries will be doing and so I remain committed to refreshing that economic case taking into account where we find ourselves, that obviously needs to happen once that crisis is passed, which is what other countries will be doing as well.
"I think the GERS figures in and of themselves tell a story with 40% of spending reserved, 70% of taxation reserved, I do not think anyone can defend the status quo right now, so I do think the GERS tell a very important story which contributes to the case for independence.”

https://www.thenational.scot/news/19521299.gers-kate-forbes-committed-pro-independence-alternative-figures/

Ha that was me, I was baffled, was just about to cut down Castle Street and woaaah Porsche thing. Baffled.

^^I think the whole finance thing is very interesting, I'd like to see some analysis that looks at the effect of Brexit (-4% per person, per year, permanently) which could be mitigated by re-entry to the single market.

The issue with that of course is that Scotlands largest trading partner is England, with 60% of goods heading there. Introducing a border with England would obviously be a restriction to trade (much as the Brexists deny that this is true for UK-EU, whilst saying it's intolerable for GB-NI).

In the GERS figures Scotland is allocated "share of the North Sea by % of population", be interesting to see the whole North Sea figure allocated to Scotland, rather than the 8% that it's currently set at for the purposes of the figures that are published.

Scottish fishermen would be able to export freely to the EU again in an independent, EU member Scotland (as small as this industry is, it's pretty large if you are a fisherman or live in a coastal village).

My concern about the analysis that we see is that most seem very partisan, and of course no-one dares run one that highlights the effects of being chained to a lunatic, as Scotland is today.

I don't think there is much of a fishing fleet left, at least on the west coast.

Yeah, it's a tiny industry - but one that has had an outsized downside from Brexit in comparison to many others, so would likely have a (relative to others) larger upside from renewed EU membership.