{"id":145,"date":"2014-08-29T23:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=145"},"modified":"2014-08-29T15:59:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T15:59:13","slug":"scottish-independence-yes-makes-huge-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/08\/scottish-independence-yes-makes-huge-gains.html","title":{"rendered":"Scottish independence &#8216;Yes&#8217; makes huge gains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i>A la base de notre civilisation, il y a la libert\u00e9 de chacun dans sa pens\u00e9e, ses croyances, ses opinions, son travail, ses loisirs.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #252525\">At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Charles de Gaulle<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-146 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/375\/2014\/08\/new-Twitter-background-290814-300x117.jpg\" alt=\"new Twitter background 290814\" width=\"560\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">I have recently changed <a title=\"Visit my Twitter feed!\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hjbentham\" target=\"_blank\">my Twitter<\/a> banner\u00a0and thought that would make a good picture for this post &#8211; the handwriting is my writing using the\u00a0touchscreen, so forgive its imperfections. I think it had quite a good effect.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">My post today will be about Scottish independence, in response to the encouraging recent surge in support for independence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">According to a recent polls that has\u00a0been conducted, public opinion has surged massively towards independence. This changes my earlier leanings\u00a0that, due to the numbers of people who are uninterested in taking part in the vote itself, a Yes vote would be unlikely. I now believe a Yes vote\u00a0is historically very likely, given the momentum that Yes has gained during these closing days before the referendum takes place on the <strong>18th of September<\/strong>. Above all, I feel that a No vote could only be caused by indifference by large numbers of people whose actual opinions lean towards independence, at this stage\u00a0:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Another poll shows that the momentum is with Yes. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/indyref?src=hash\">#indyref<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/VoteYes?src=hash\">#VoteYes<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Scotland?src=hash\">#Scotland<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/ys3q8IjgQh\">pic.twitter.com\/ys3q8IjgQh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Yes Scotland (@YesScotland) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YesScotland\/statuses\/505248151956385794\">August 29, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Of course, swaying people who are undecided remains a challenge.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Scotland is one of the world&#8217;s wealthiest nations, richer per head than the UK, France and Japan. We can choose Yes with confidence <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/indyref?src=hash\">#indyref<\/a> \u2014 Yes Scotland (@YesScotland) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YesScotland\/statuses\/505225939589267457\">August 29, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have written two pieces on Scottish independence that I believe should be reviewed by people undecided on whether Scotland should leave the Union. One was published at Press TV and the other was published at ClubOfINFO. They present two arguments that I feel should sway the &#8216;undecideds&#8217; into the Yes camp.<\/p>\n<p>In sum, these are the two decisive points that I believe push reasonable people into the Yes camp:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>*\u00a0<a title=\"Scotland to see more scientific progress if independent\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clubof.info\/2014\/04\/viewpoint-scotland-to-see-more.html\" target=\"_blank\">Scotland is more innovative and tends to lead the rest of the UK<\/a>, in terms of its people, yet the UK takes credit for all of what should have been Scotland&#8217;s own scientific and technological accomplishments.<\/li>\n<li>* Sentiments have been going in the direction of independence, in the long term, <a title=\"Scotland's future is independence\" href=\"http:\/\/www.presstv.ir\/detail\/2014\/04\/29\/360523\/scotlands-future-is-independence\/\" target=\"_blank\">as a reaction to poor governance by London<\/a>. If Scotland does not get independence now, it will only get independence later. The idea of Scotland forever remaining part of the UK does not fit with the facts. Scottish independence\/the breakup of the Union is inevitable. Why not now?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a title=\"How to vote for Independence on 18 September\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutmyvote.co.uk\/the_independence_referendum\/guide_to_voting.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Voting at the referendum<\/a><\/p>\n<p>History has proven that gaining\u00a0independence is a real chance to improve things, and that it enables a region to better safeguard its own interests and make the best use of its own resources. When sentiments align with the concrete realities of injustice and poor governance, it should be considered unacceptable not to grasp this kind of momentous opportunity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>NOTICE<\/strong>:\u00a0<a title=\"What to do\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutmyvote.co.uk\/the_independence_referendum\/guide_to_voting.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">IF YOU&#8217;RE A SCOT, <strong>YOU GOTTA\u00a0DO THIS<\/strong><\/a>: This is an <strong>easy way to change the world<\/strong> with the stroke\u00a0of a pen, and no-one should refuse that kind of opportunity. The alternative is more misrule by blatantly evil Conservatives or the prospect of the\u00a0even nastier and more backward\u00a0UKIP eventually coming\u00a0to power. How could anyone vote for those guys\u00a0instead? If anything, this is a unique protest opportunity. Honestly, I would probably move to Scotland if it got independence, just to escape them.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">By <a title=\"Harry J. Bentham's file at ClubOfINFO Circulation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clubof.info\/search\/label\/Harry_J_Bentham\" target=\"_blank\">Harry J. Bentham<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-41\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/375\/2014\/08\/HJB-Signature-and-stamp-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"HJB Signature and stamp\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A la base de notre civilisation, il y a la libert\u00e9 de chacun dans sa pens\u00e9e, ses croyances, ses opinions, son travail, ses loisirs. At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure. Charles de Gaulle I have recently changed my&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,37,72,66,16,61,55,57,45,56],"tags":[48,82,1487,1486,80,81],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism-2","category-history","category-international-relations","category-politics-2","category-press-tv","category-science","category-scotland","category-scottish-independence","category-techno-progressivism","category-uk","tag-harry-j-bentham","tag-referendum","tag-scottish-independence","tag-uk","tag-yes-to-independence","tag-yes-vote"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scottish independence &#039;Yes&#039; makes huge gains - L&#039;Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/08\/scottish-independence-yes-makes-huge-gains.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scottish independence &#039;Yes&#039; makes huge gains - L&#039;Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A la base de notre civilisation, il y a la libert\u00e9 de chacun dans sa pens\u00e9e, ses croyances, ses opinions, son travail, ses loisirs. At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure. Charles de Gaulle I have recently changed my&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2014\/08\/scottish-independence-yes-makes-huge-gains.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L&#039;Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-29T23:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-29T15:59:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2014\/08\/new-Twitter-background-290814-300x117.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. 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Bentham","description":"Harry J. Bentham is a British futurist blogger who has been a contributor at a number of think tanks including the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies since 2013. His work at Press TV and the L'Ordre blog featured at the multi-faith Beliefnet website has gained increasing attention and praise, including in the international media. Commentaries on political and ethical controversies by Bentham have been published at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, H+ Magazine, Dissident Voice and numerous other publications. He edits The clubof.info Blog (http:\/\/www.clubof.info\/search\/label\/Harry_J_Bentham).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Harry-J.-Bentham\/e\/B00D4MSEY0\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/author\/hbentham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}