Taking the "U" out of the UK

[FunkyDexter]

Not so much "power" as "powers". I.e. the balance of which decisions are made in Westminster and which are made in Holyrood. It's not an issue of how much power government as a whole has over the people but rather which bits of government will hold which powers. I might be miss-interpretting you but you seem to be coming at this with a "small government" agenda. It's fine for you to hold those values but they're nothing to do with what the current debate is about. In fact, the Scots tend to sit further to the left than the rest of the UK so the independence movement can actyually be seen as a campaign for big government, not small.

Why is it they want out of Britain as a single entity?

There are a number of reason but I'd say the most important is that they feel they got a government they didn't vote for. You have to remember that, while the United Kingdom may be a single state it's also four separate nations with separate national identities. As a nation the Scots tend to be alot more liberal and left wing then the English but the English, due to size of population, tend to dictate who wins the UK elections. At the last election the Scots overwhelmingly voted for Labour and the SNP, both of which are fairly left wing. As I remember the Tories didn't get a single Scottish seat. And yet the Tories (in conjunction with the Liib Dems) ended up forming a government for the UK so the Scots ended up being governed by them.

For me that's what the independence movement was always about. It wasn't about trying to cut all ties with England, beheading the queen and painting yourself blue. It was just about trying to get a government that was more representative of the values of Scotland as a nation within the UK. Independence would have achieved that, as would giving more powers to the Scottish regional assembly.

What's interesting now is to watch how this plays out in the rest of the UK and Europe. The Westminster parties have had to make some pretty far reaching promises to get the vote to swicg back to no and these were made in a rush and probably not thought through. UKIP are already starting to crow about it and there's talk of back bench revolts so this could lead to some major shifts in the politics in the whole of the UK. And there are lots of Independence movements in Europe. The Spanish Catelans are making loud noises so you can expect to see some movement there soon.

Well remind me not to use Funky Dexter polling, next time i want an election predicted

Yeah, I got that wrong Twas the Barnett formula wot swung it and that's cold blooded economics all the way.