As someone who can't quite remember the 1950's, I grew up in a society which had fairly set views on the world. You played outdoors for hours every day, you did as you were told when you were told, you hoped to grow up to have a good job, and the world only really existed between about Moffat and Perth. And the concept of independence for Scotland was not a topic for polite conversation, never mentioned in civilised company.
Then I stopped playing outdoors every day, I did grow up a bit, I became self-employed, I stopped doing what I was told and for a while moved to a country even smaller than the space between Moffat and Perth, but much richer than the whole of Scotland. And while I lived in that small country I learned lots of things that just can't be learned on an island and the experience hugely changed my outlook on the world.

Another huge change is that the topic of Scottish independence is now regularly a lead topic on UK news outlets, although not always treated with the respect it deserves. Today's independence furore concerns the opinion of the Governonr of the Bank of England that an independent Scotland may have to cede some sovereignty if she wished to retain Sterling as her currency. Or maybe he didn't quite say that, this speech seems to be more than usually prone to interpretation by news sources. But let's assume he did. Is he right? Maybe not. Remember that Mr Carney is from Canada, a very large country, and that he may not have the range of imagination and adaptability that belongs to people from small countries.
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