We should only be discussing the Essentials of Independence....

Today's discussions on the radio have been focussing on the costs and timescales of removing the Trident submarine base from Faslane. This is as a result of a report out today by the Royal United Services Institute which seems to say that the No Campaign had over-estimated the costs of re-locating the base. They say the timescale may have to be longer but that the whole process would not be impossible.  I had previously thought it might be as there are only two deep water access points to Scotland on the West Coast and I wasn't sure that these submarines could come into for example the South of England .... but who am I to say ! I'm sure they know what they are talking about !

Ref : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11032878/Yes-vote-Scotland-would-be-stuck-with-Trident-until-2028.html

However it seems to me that yet again we are talking about specifics which are not entirely "CORE" to whether we are Independent or not. This seems to me to be specific policy. And along with such things as the childcare issue, they are very much personal opinions and are current SNP policy.

But there must be many people who believe in Independence and who also believe we need a nuclear deterrent, and vice versa !

So when are we going to separate out those things which will definitely happen on Independence from those things which would be dependent on the government of the day ?

What new powers are we definitely going to gain by Independence and what things are policy of the government on the day ?  For example, with Independence, Scotland would have full control over fiscal policy, with full powers on taxes, spending & borrowing. This compares with the current situation where the Scottish Parliament is responsible for just 7 per cent of taxes raised in Scotland.

So that is a definite GAIN of power.

Something such as the childcare issue, which I personally do not agree with, could be said to be government policy and in fact could be modified today even before the vote.
I would sum up my own idea for the care of children as that each child should have some funding attached to it and this could be used to either subsidise parents to look after their own children in the first few years, which I believe is the best for the child. however if people wanted to use the subsidy to put it towards nursery or childminder fees so that they themselves can carry on working then they could use it for that. This would put both of these families on an equal footing. Currently the only families being subsidised are those with two working parents. These subsidies can be quite a lot at times and are required particularly as whole nursery salaries need to be found from somewhere, particularly if parents are on low wages. (I wont touch on the finances of single parent families here). However the whole system is creaking and vast subsidies go to some families and single earner familes who care for their own children, whether on low salaries or higher salaries are currently vastly penalised and in some cases are contributing a huge percentage of tax.

Anyway as you can see I get diverted !
But the fact is that I am leaning towards voting for Independence but on certain things like Childcare, Defence etc I am not necessarily in agreement with the government we have at the moment.  If we gain Independence I really think the first election after that is the one where we will find out the direction the electorate would like to see the country moving.  And I would also like to see a new re-named party maybe slightly to the right, to represent our businesses, farmers and industry in Scotland. Perhaps a modernisers party or progressive party.... there was a move in the Conservative party recently for something like this and I think it is needed to balance the debate out. After all Scotland used to have quite a high Conservative vote - where has that gone at the moment ?

Anyway let me know what you think ?