Blog: 10 reasons why I voted for independence

I don’t think it's so much about one topic, that's the difficulty with the Scottish referendum. Being a Scottish "yes" voter myself, here are my thoughts.

1 - Misrepresentation We are governed by a right-wing government that only has one seat in Scotland. This is utter misrepresentation of the Scottish people in Parliament and what leads from this is a London-centric government

2 - Immigration laws Britain has turned to scapegoating immigrants for it's financial problems. This is not so and the real source of these problems (such as tax havens, corrupt bankers, toxic debt buying) needs to be addressed.

3 - Deconstruction of the welfare state The British government is slowly deconstructing the welfare state, putting the burden back on the poor. On top of that, they further hurt the poor with something like the bedroom tax. Why not tax those who already have money. Last year saw more food banks than ever in UK history and the inequality gap between the rich and the poor is at a peak.

4 - Privatization of, well, everything Why David Cameron sells money-generating state train lines, which generate 240 million a year, for 2 billion is beyond me. If he just waited eight years he would have that money back, but instead he wants a quick buck (typical Tory idea, see Margaret Thatcher). Nationalization of many industries is needed, especially public services. This way the money generated gets pumped back into society and creates a fantastic knock on the "multiplier effect" to boot.

5 - Waste of oil funds When oil was found in the 1970's Scotland wanted to make a sovereign fund, similar to Norway’s (which worked out pretty sweet for them). Instead we blasted it all away. On top of that we had Tony Blair cheekily selling Scottish waters to England in a bid to claim oil for England (look at the straight lines on the south east of a Scottish map and you will get my point). We have just found even more oil, just off the Shetland Islands. This money should not be squandered and should be taxed well.

6 - A mass of resources

If you think Scotland has no exports, go read "common weal". Scotland, with this oil, is in a position to modernise its industrial sector. We can pour money into the development of new technology, and with such a rich resource of grad students, we already have the workforce available. There is talk about lots of things. We already produce a lot of electronics, we have a dated ship building industry that is looking to invest in hydrogen powered ships (which, if we start now, we can become world leaders in). In the past we had one of the greatest metal industries in Europe. (When Thatcher closed the mines down, she was petitioned by all of the German car companies not to, as the quality was the best, bar none).

7 - Socialism, not capitalism We have the opportunity to create a society more similar to the Scandinavian set up, where wages are higher and the quality of life is better. This can only be done by the introduction of more socialist ideas. We need to start raising the minimum wage, reducing the inequality gap and helping the poor. In Britain now, the situation is getting worse, not better.

8 - The BBC is despicable Get this one, we pay 225 million (I’m guessing pounds but I don’t know) in tax to the BBC. They spend something around 80-90million on Scotland in return. (Note: he doesn’t offer thing to support this) Go figure.

9 - No nuclear weapons on Scottish soil We are not warmongers, we want to be rid of the Trident missiles at the navy base in Faslane. What a waste of money. (I took this sentence out because he’s exagerating. There are no masses of people starving on the streets in the UK). How can you justify spending 2 billion pounds on a nuclear submarine that just sits there.

10 - Tired of British warmongering Again, hundreds of thousands protested against the Iraq war only to be ignored and millions of pounds spent becoming America's No 1 lapdog.