i make no apologies for starting another politics/scotland thread, we all love them!

so, there was a debate on the today programme this morning that i missed on this, and you can listen to the audio of it here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9480000/9480239.stm

this is a thorny issue, isn't it? on the one hand, like the link says, scottish independence is a scottish issue first and foremost, so from that point of view, ONLY the scots should have a vote on it. i disagree with this. scotland is part of the UK; scotland seceding from the UK would have a direct impact on all residents of the UK; it's something that directly affects us, maybe we should have a vote on it.

generally, the only places that have referenda on independence are, to some degree, war-torn. kosovo, east timor, south sudan. scotland isn't, no matter what some parts of dundee might look like on a saturday night (obvious joke is obvious). better comparisons from my point of view are with the issues of quebec, and the potential splitting of belgium (rather than, say, the basque region).

i think this is going to come down pretty much dependent on what you believe - if you're pro-independence, you're going to say scotland-only, if you're anti-, you'll say the entire country gets a say.

but what do YOU think