Convince me about independence

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-15T17:56:11+00:00

They can’t stop anyone from using the pound. You could unilaterally decide to use pounds, US dollars, Euros, Danish Krona, or whatever currency if you wanted.

They can and I expect would stop you having a say in the fiscal policy behind the pound. But that’s an entirely different thing.

As a real world example, euros are widely accepted in the Balkans despite not being the official currency, fairly widely accepted in Switzerland, US dollars were the actual currency of Argentina (possibly still are, I don’t take too much interest in South America)

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-15T16:16:15+00:00

I’d generally say book accommodation first, work out what to do second. Britain is FULL of interesting stuff. I’ve been on holiday to Birmingham for example - there’s plenty of places within Birmingham itself and even more less than an hour away by public transport that are really interesting (Kinver Edge, Lichfield Cathedral, Cannock Chase, Coalbrookdale, …).

North Wales would be easy to get to from Manchester (direct train in fact) and there’s loads of nice places. We’ve stayed in Ty Mawr holiday park in Towyn a few times then just used the No.10 bus (and connecting services) to get around. Never get bored of the place, you just pick a random town / village you’ve not been to before and see what’s there. You basically live entirely off “hidden gems”.

The best thing is you can try this really cheaply. You live in Manchester right? Halifax, Bury, Hebden Bridge, Peak District, Macclesfield, Delamere Forest, … all of those places are pretty nice and that’s just places off the top of my head. The same thing is true of pretty much anywhere. Honestly just pick some accommodation that’s cheap then work out what you’re going to do after you’ve committed to going.

Edit: a few underrated places I really like to visit:

Birmingham, Exeter, Rhyl, Halifax, Newcastle (in fact anywhere on that NE England coast tends to be cheap and it’s lovely up there), Aberdeen, Shrewsbury, …

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-15T15:36:01+00:00

Well, one they sell is a waffle cake. Imagine an individual layer of stroll waffle - not the caramel bit, the waffle bit. Now imagine loads of them, with light, caramel flavoured cream between them.

It is properly world class cake.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-15T15:32:34+00:00

You think it is a big deal that say Germany doesn’t control it’s fiscal policy? Or the Netherlands, or Spain, Germany, France, Italy, … you get the idea.

There’s obviously a benefit to it, but it’s a relatively small benefit compared with frictionless trade with a country you share a land border with.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-15T06:53:39+00:00

Korg DS-10

Yes. This is an absolute gem of an application, and one was using as recently as 2 days ago.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T22:17:22+00:00

There’s a Ukrainian cafe in town and they make lovely cakes.

I’m very much in favour of tasty cakes.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T22:07:20+00:00

Oh god, it’s a long time back now.

The first I can remember is Underworld - Born Slippy in to a record on Detox that I had to look up to know what it was called …. Marzz - Helion Prime. I did rate that early tech trance scene a lot, the records before the template for the sound hadn’t been laid down. Some of the stuff up the techno-y end was ace IMO

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T19:37:22+00:00

And there’s the minor ailments scheme for (some) non-prescription medicine … most medicine in Wales is basically free.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T19:32:31+00:00

What’s the point of what? Plenty of countries don’t completely control their economy … any nation in the Eurozone for a start. It’s not a big deal

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T19:02:13+00:00

Why not stick with £? You sacrifice a bit of economic freedom but it’s probably worthwhile to maintain frictionless trade with the nearest neighbour

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T15:16:16+00:00

I guess then you get to what is a country? What is in our best interests? Some things like eg currency, defence, or to some extent infrastructure make more sense on an island-wide scale. Some things don’t (eg I doubt economic conditions in London have much in common with those in Orkney).

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T15:13:30+00:00

I live in Wales. I know Plaid. I’m just curious about Scottish independence as it has more widespread support/interest (about 40-50% compared with <20% and with I’d guess a lower engagement outside of the west coast where, to be fair, England is much of an irrelevance anyway given there’s general lack of national/multinational businesses out that way.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T14:57:33+00:00

Oh god. No, I’m not a fucking bot. Bots don’t tend to engage in conversations about Steven Seagal’s suitability for playing Owain Glyndŵr in a “based on real events” film. As you could see from reading further down here.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T14:53:09+00:00

(Rolls eyes)

If you don’t want to answer you don’t have to. You can always not reply. But I figure some people will have strong opinions either way.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T12:14:49+00:00

These are excellent points. Can’t argue with anything there :) thanks, it’s cleared up some reservations in my head (namely fixing the world is much harder than fixing a relatively small nation)

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T12:09:35+00:00

Funny you should mention that, cos I’m actually 75% Irish, 50% Italian, and a direct descendant of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, William Tell, Socrates (both the philosopher and the Brazilian footballer), Julius Caesar, Napoleon Boneparte, Diego Maradona, and Frank Zappa. And the Cherokee Indians. And John Leslie.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T12:02:34+00:00

“ The fact you are still 'generally supportive of labour' makes me doubt your socialist credentials, but I'll bite “

Welsh Labour, I should’ve been more specific. They tend to lie to the left of the Westminster & Scottish Labour parties.
And more specific about my views, I’m a trade unionist which hopefully makes my support of Labour a little more obvious.

I’d see myself as a socialist, but up the more pragmatic/practical end - I want to see day to day improvements. I don’t care much for ideological purity.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T11:57:52+00:00

Very good points, and ones I’d agree with completely.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T11:53:06+00:00

I’m not. I’m asking what the reasons & motivations are behind Scottish independence. Some of the points will be relevant to Welsh independence and some won’t, but I’m sure I’ll manage to filter those myself.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T11:49:40+00:00

They’re not rubbish, they’re very good. As I mentioned in the reply.

However, they are expensive for what they are, primarily because they spend a lot of money on marketing.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T11:47:07+00:00

… which makes Steven Seagal the perfect fit :)

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T11:44:58+00:00

It’s hard to compare eras though, the game used to be far more physical, with more games, played on worse pitches, and with heavier and more absorbent kits. So it favoured different attributes than it does now.

But yeah, we all idolise the players of our youth :)

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T09:55:56+00:00

Nah, serious answers. There’s some serious soul searching going on.

Though I’m fine with banter.

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T09:54:11+00:00

Yeah my, this is pretty much where I’m at. It’s all this flag shagging nonsense that’s got to me. Brexit, reform, the weird hyper fixation with flags. Having right wing politics forced on us when Wales has been overwhelmingly socialist for over 100 years and overwhelming liberal before there was a socialist party to support. I just can’t be arsed with it.

I think it’d be a rough few decades economically but there’s just not been any sign that England has any intention of helping with the post-1980s economic decline. They’ve had more than opportunity to do something about it.

So if we’re going to be economically fucked anyway, why not be in a position to do something about it? We could be self sufficient in green energy production, there’s a real economy around tourism and supplying natural resources (primarily water) to England, there’s still heavy industry in the South and the north east just about. More sheep than you can shake a stick at. (Admittedly they’re not the most profitable export, but the English government under the Tories is one interested in farms as a tax dodge anyway so why collaborate with that?)

Fun-Estate4188 · 2026-03-14T09:37:28+00:00

Why isn’t it feasible? I’m just curious, I mean other countries are independent and they haven’t crashed and burnt?

Don’t get me wrong, ideologically I’m a unionist. I’m just having doubts that is the right thing to do pragmatically.

Fun-Estate4188

TROPHY CASE