When reading different views about the up and coming Scottish referendum vote i came across one mans (Colin Symes) reason for voting No to independence and it resonated so much with what i was feeling and thinking that i had to post it here.  I don’t know Colin  personally but i whole hardheartedly agree with what He is saying!  Colin is one of the leaders at the Community Church in Edinburgh.

“Time to declare, I think… I will be voting Yes to Union and Togetherness on September 18 and No to separatism and dissolution of the UK, which means a ‘No Thanks’ to Independence. I believe wholeheartedly in the need for this vote as a matter of justice, as my paper on the referendum indicated. For the first time in history, Scotland has a public vote on its place in the Union, which looks as though it will include around 80% of the voting population. I believe the Act of Union of 1707 was one of the unsafest pieces of legislation ever to go through a British parliament, and that it was against the will of the Scottish people at that time. That said, that unwelcome arranged marriage of the nations of the UK has led to our becoming together a world power still respected on the international stage. To that Union, Scotland has brought a contribution out of all proportion to her size. I will be gladly seizing the opportunity, then, to turn an unjust history into a just decision and a conscious choice to remain together with the other nations of these islands. Having voted yes to devolution both in 1978 and in 1997, I believe in decentralised power closer to the people, and I want to see more powers in Edinburgh, and would prefer a federal union, which was the desire of the Scottish Parliament in 1707. But I will not vote for writing a blank cheque for the politicians of the SNP to purvey their narrow vision of a breakaway Scotland built on enlightenment humanism. I might be more inclined to vote for independence if there were more light and shade in the yes camp, but to vote yes appears to be signing up for the SNP’s manifesto which mixes nationalism with old guard centralist socialist practices which have failed and been rightly rejected by other states, particularly in Eastern Europe.
In a moving scene in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, the wife, Golde asks her husband Tevye if their arranged marriage has resulted in a loving relationship. Their conclusion is that, despite the lack of choice they had, they are in love. In spite of the unjust circumstances of our coming together, to remain in union as nations will be more creative and productive than a messy and acrimonious divorce which, as usual, will line the pockets of a lot of lawyers and lead to the loss of things we now take for granted as part of our joint heritage as UK nations. For these reasons, I will be using my vote on September 18 to say Yes to a Strong Scotland in a Strong UK”