Effect of Scottish Independence Vote

Archi_Bald

TCA wrote: »

"In an independent Scotland, this Government will continue to support existing tax-free savings products, like savings and investment ISAs. Existing schemes will be honoured in full following independence."

Thanks for the link TCA. This sounds as if ISAs would be transferred to scottish jurisdiction which could be an interesting administrative challenge, assuming there are providers ready to take on scottish ISAs.

But of course I might be wrong since the statement doesn't say who will honour the existing schemes, not does it say what "support existing tax free savings products" actually means. I also note that there is no talk about new schemes, unless that is in a different paragraph.

No mention of SIPPs which are of course quite different to ISAs.

So conclusion seems to be yet again: uncertainty.

TCA

Archi_Bald wrote: »

No mention of SIPPs which are of course quite different to ISAs.

At a quick glance I don't see SIPPS mentioned specifically below but maybe of interest:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00434502.pdf

The entire White Paper is available here:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/9348/0

zagubov

zee wrote: »

NO WAY an independence vote as NO independence if salmond and co want to break away from UK to go cap in hand to eurozone and beg to join. only people who will gain are the the poor excuse of scottish politicians [except a few who are genuine ] all want to join the 'gravy train' of perks they could gain in the eurozone..have a bar on any scottish MP's joining eu parliment and the uproar would be held across scotland....if the petty expense claims are anything to go by and senior mp's trying to claim personal money spent on expenses , it is a shoddy group who claim to represent scotland.
they slid in by the publics apathy over previous goverment by default , without even a 50% of vote ... but claim to represent Scotland...
I admired SNP in opposition BUT in power they show how power can be used to force political dogma on the general public
next election...SNP no more.

Gosh! :eek:

TCA wrote: »

Agreed. But for what it's worth, this is an excerpt from the Scottish Government's White Paper:

"In an independent Scotland, this Government will continue to support existing tax-free savings products, like savings and investment ISAs. Existing schemes will be honoured in full following independence."

That is obviously based on an SNP government being in power, which of course might not be the case.

Well all the polls show they'd win by a bigger landlside than last time. Plus their opponents look as though they'd be out of their depth in a car park puddle, so it looks like it might very well be the case.

TCA

zagubov wrote: »

Well all the polls show they'd win by a bigger landlside than last time. Plus their opponents look as though they'd be out of their depth in a car park puddle, so it looks like it might very well be the case.

I would expect the entire Scottish political landscape to shift massively if independence was achieved. The "unionist" parties would pretty much need to redefine themselves.

zagubov

TCA wrote: »

I would expect the entire Scottish political landscape to shift massively if independence was achieved. The "unionist" parties would pretty much need to redefine themselves.

What's going to make life difficult for them is that their Scottish politicians will be included in the Scottish side of negotiations but the rUK side will have to include the same parties, presumably also including the SNP as the UK government claims to represent their constituancies.

I wonder who Scottish voters will vote for in the Westminster elections?

I think it's time to roll out the unionists favourite expression "having their cake and eating it".

planteria

innovate wrote: »

I am sure they speak highly of you too. But I feel it would be helpful if personal likes would be left out of the debate - it's not about how likeable some individuals are, it is about the future of a whole country that will still exist when the individuals have long passed on.

just an observation about how low the debate is being taken by one of those involved. and i agree, it should be far more important.

Thrugelmir

TCA wrote: »

At a quick glance I don't see SIPPS mentioned specifically below but maybe of interest:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00434502.pdf

The entire White Paper is available here:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/9348/0

Proposals on pensions are interesting. Reads more like a party manifesto than a formulated costed treasury document. Offer bribes but have no plans as to fund them.

ColdIron

To me it looks like a wish list unsubstantiated by any facts at all

To pluck one aspiration at random

The single-tier pension would initially be set at a level of £160 per week (£8320
per annum). If the rest of the UK (rUK) rate for the single-tier pension is set at a
higher level, the Scottish single-tier pension will match this figure.

If you don't even have elementary things in place like, umm you know a currency, how exactly would this be funded unless you have a magic money tree? Would you increase taxes (which come to think of it is the same thing), would you close your eyes and wish really hard?

I was waiting for the line 'If unemployment goes up, we'll just make it go down'

Anybody taken in by this needs their bumps feeling

planteria

totally agree ColdIron...cheerfully dividing up the pie in the sky.

rpc

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Reads more like a party manifesto than a formulated costed treasury document. Offer bribes but have no plans as to fund them.

That describes pretty much the whole white paper. We are told that an independent Scotland will be able to fix problems that other governments of all colours struggle with (and some of the issues are already devolved) but we aren't told how. Just that "we can do it with the powers of independence."

They really don't like to talk about income tax though, which leaves me rather suspicious.

ColdIron wrote: »

Anybody taken in by this needs their bumps feeling

While some of the Yes camp follow the Jim Sillars line (independence might cost us, but it will be worth it) there are a large number of them who really believe that we'll get what the SNP are asking for and be both rich and free.

The latest panelbase poll (commission by Yes Scotland and this pollster is always Yes-friendly) shows that C2DE voters are very likely to vote Yes if they believe that they will be better off. This group is fairly closely balanced at the moment with 55/45 in favour of Yes. ABC1 are much less influenced by personal finances and also strongly opposed (62/38 in favour of No).

Coupled with recent news that YES have been targeting council estates and deprived areas recently, particularly those who don't normally vote, it suggests to me that they don't know how to convince ABC1 so are hoping to get enough C2DE on board with a dumbed-down economic argument.