THIS IS SCARY, VERY SCARY.

THIS IS SCARY…VERY SCARY.

The figures quoted in this article come from the National Records of Scotland. They spell out the reasons the indigenous Scottish population is falling. It also highlights that the fall is being disguised by a very substantial inflow of people from the rest of the UK.

It has been happening since the 1950’s so it emphasizes just how badly disadvantaged the current franchise is if we ever want to win Scotland’s Independence. It also goes much further as I will explain in this article.

Birth Rate

Who are most likely to be those leaving Scotland each year? It is pretty certain they are a much younger age group than those coming in from the rest of the UK. I don’t have these figures but I would bet my house there is a very significant age difference. Does that matter? Well yes it does, if lots of young people are leaving and being replaced by people much older you can be absolutely sure that will have a dramatic and sustained impact on the number of new births recorded in our country. The number of indigenous Scots living in Scotland will decease and that process will accelerate over time. Experts predict if we stay on our present course indigenous Scots will be a MINORITY IN SCOTLAND BY 2050. So Nicola, time is very much NOT ON OUR SIDE. I am astonished you ever thought it was!

If, as I suspect many of the incomers are older, and we know for certain that many are retirees from down South cashing in on the much higher priced housing down South, buying a similar or better house in Scotland and pocketing many hundreds of thousands of pounds to live a comfortable life in retirement. That has an impact as well, not a good one for our young people who are still living in Scotland. The impact of these hundreds of thousands of incomers, particularly in our beauty spots and tourist areas, forces prices up and indigenous young people find it impossible to buy an affordable house in areas where their families have lived for generations. Local businesses find it difficult to hire local staff because so many young people have moved away, priced out the local housing market. Government and especial local government have been slow to respond to these serious local shortages. Legislation and finance is required to build houses for social rent with strict qualifications that reserves those opportunities for genuinely local families.

It doesn’t end there, having fewer families of childbearing age impacts local schools, in some small rural areas it may endanger the continued existence of the entire school.

I could write a lot more about this but I am sure this is going to be an ongoing and growing issue so I will finish with a little on the impact on our hopes for Scottish Independence. I will keep this simple with a number of factual statements which I believe spells the outcome very clearly.

We know that Independence is much more strongly supported by the young rather than the old. It is the young people we are losing, in very substantial numbers.

We know that the people who are replacing them are coming from furth of Scotland and we know in the 2014 Referendum some  72% of people in this category voted no. ( source Edinburgh University study of voting patterns in the 2014 Referendum).

We know that the 2014 referendum was run on the basis of the flawed Local Government franchise that allowed huge numbers of temporary residents a vote, people who would never been allowed to vote on a constitutional matter in this way in any other country in the whole of Europe.

We know the number of indigenous Scots living in Scotland every year is dropping. We know this population group were the strongest in support of Independence for Scotland and that a MAJORITY voted in favour in  2014.

We would already be Independent if our Referendum was run on the same basis as every other country in Europe organizes votes on their own constitution.

I have to ask knowing all the above, why has our Government in Scotland, a Government supposedly in support of Independence, done absolutely nothing to deal with these issues?

My answer would be we are witnessing intentional betrayal, or are ANY of our elected representatives, at Westminster or Holyrood who want to explain what their plan and fixed timetable is? Why they have done nothing about the above?

I will happily publish any response!

I am, as always 

Yours for Scotland.

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