Congradulations and best of luck to the Scottish National Party. Fighting for independence when you're already part of a rich and modern country is not an easy thing, especially in today's individualistic, politically-bored world. Most people today have totally forgotten or don't care about their ancestors' struggles, as long as their daily little comforts aren't threatened. This is a shame, people aren't sheep, there's more to a people's future than just to merge into a single bland human blob. Just like there's biodiversity in nature, there's diversity in human people and cultures. There are rarer species, then there are rats, pigeons, etc that thrive so much they would take over the whole ecosystem if they could. Opponents of human diversity argue we should all be the same, like rats or pigeons and let go of our cultural differences. They equate borders with war and intolerance, but would never give up theirs. One of the purposes of independence or for that matter having countries, is to allow differences, protect a certain area on earth for a people to exist and evolve. Borders are not bad things, they're not being close-minded, or anti-neighbors. When John Lennon sang to imagine no countries to kill or die for, he didn't mean to have the smaller countries shut up and merge in the big ones for peace's sake. Erasing all borders is a nice dream but can't be used by one against the other for self-interest. One of the reasons that made Europe thrive in sciences and arts over the centuries was that it had diversity and competition, it wasn't a single faceless blob. Like the saying goes: you can't have a door without walls. I applaud Scottish independence and apologize to Brits who disagree, as it's none of my business, being a foreigner (good thing there are borders!).