As a single parent trade unionist I'm sick and tired of people like me being called 'the chattering classes' when we want Independence. When Scotland got its own Parliament I did not think we needed Independence straight away. As the years pass and the government from England wants more nuclear power and nuclear weapons both to be sited in Scotland where 'there is space for that sort of thing' meaning 'Not in Their Back Yard' it is obvious that Independence is our only way out of the mess they want to get us into. Yes Scotland wants jobs and needs jobs but not at any price. The price of nuclear jobs is too high to pay. Last night on TV they showed the endless procession of trucks carrying gravel to shore up Dungness beach so that the nuclear power station does not wash away into the sea. Yet they say that Nuclear Power does not produce carbon emissions! It is my kids and your weans and grandkids, nephews, nieces, grandnieces and nephews who will pay the price for the throw away consumer society we are living in. If the people in Scotland can just get the chance to concentrate on sorting out Scotland we have a better chance of a future.

Most Scots I know or ask want asylum seekers who have qualifications to be able to work as doctors or whatever they are instead of sitting in highrise flats in Glasgow with nothing to distract them from getting more depressed about the intimidation, war and torture they've run away from. Why pay these people to do nothing as they forget their training and cannot afford to keep up with changes in their type of work? Scotland has space for people but England insists that because London is overcrowded Scotland is not allowed immigrants. Not only that but children and families are put in Dungavel or sent away without saying goodbye to their schoolfriends. So a part of Scotland now has primary school children living in fear that they will be next because they are too young to realise that only the kids from abroad will be taken. Maybe asylum seeking families do not want to live in the empty croftlands but why not give them the chance?

Then there is drugs! More Scots than English get Multiple Sclerosis (MS) It's something to do with our climate or diet or both. Lezley Gibson in Cumbria and her partner set up THC4MS and now face jail. I don't know how many MS sufferers in Scotland they helped with medical chocolate. I do know Biz Ivol in Orkney chose death because she could not face life without the only medicine that helped her pains. I don't think her local police enjoyed being part of the process that resulted in her death but London decides. I hope an Independent Scotland will be more tolerant, more helpful to MS sufferers and other very sick and dying people who would like their drug of choice to be available legally.

Our climate. Well we would fit in better with Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia would n't we. My family had a relative (before WW2?) who worked on a Para Handy type boat going to the Baltic ports. Direct traveling there and the Faroes was easier then than it is now. Tho' it was slower. There is a slow food campaign I'm not able to join because eating fast to get seconds of school dinners is a difficult habit to change. What about slow travel? Take the (Greek!!) Superferry from Rosyth to Zeebruger while it is still running. No need to worry about ofsetting your carbon footprint. The danger is they will stop it due to lack of interest. But take a picnic because on a budget you might not be able to afford the meals. Otherwise its a bus or train to Newcastle if you want to get to Norway and Sweden slow travel with DFDS or Fjordline.

I met some of our squaddies on a train. They are depressed because of the job they are having to do in Afghanistan being on one side or the other of tribal feuds. It's like our clans were. Don't like the tribe next door? Well claim they are Taliban and the Yanks, with a little help from our boys, will blow them off the face of the earth men, women and children. Tribal feud sorted. Young Scots with no prospects (because they did not want to learn English at school?) join the army as a way out of whatever dead end they are in and meet a worse fate because of George Bush and his crony Tony. There must be real reconstruction 'our boys' could be doing somewhere else. They were sent home at Christmas to cut down on army fuel bills.

The only drawback I've thought of to Independence is television programs. Can we make enough of our own? Will we afford good quality? But since so many programs already come from the US or Australia will we notice the difference? I cannot stand the Newsnight Scottish Opt Out. So often it is a whinge. The presenters seem sad that they are not allowed to be on Big Newsnight and often the International item is the one Scotland misses. I thought with a digital box we could watch the real Newsnight to the end. But No we can't. Yes have a Scottish Newsnight but run the English (and Welsh and N.I) items at that time instead of the International ones.

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