The Scottish referendum will prove to have been a Godsend for the UK's EU 'out' campaign

It may have been unrelated perhaps, but I think the Scottish referendum will prove to have been a Godsend for the EU referendum 'out' campaign.

The Scottish people voted quite narrowly to stay within the United Kingdom in their recent referendum. I think that as far as their immediate future is concerned they were right to do so. And as far as the UK is concerned, it was probably best for those of us who do not live in Scotland. On a longer term basis I think they were wrong and I advocated voting for independence at the time of the vote. Because it was really about self-confidence and trusting one's fellow countrymen to achieve success in the future. The 'stay in' vote in Scotland, promoted by those in whose interests the status quo is was really about a lack of self belief.

Ask the country (Scotland) now and there would be an overwhelming vote for independence. They have effectively overcome their fears now, but it is too late. They will not get another opportunity to vote for independence for years, probably decades.

That's the thing about referendums. Even more than General Elections but they're in the same general area: The vote becomes a mandate for things you don't really agree on. You may vote Tory (for example) because you think they're economically competent but they take your vote as a green light for many other things that you might not agree with. Referendums are similar but on steroids. A vote for a free trade area in 1975, has become a 'mandate' for a federal Europe in 2015.

But I think the Scottish referendum has shown this to people. I think that it has imprinted upon people's minds that this is not a rehearsal. That this vote is not a temporary issue. That if the result is for us to stay 'in' it will be used by politicians to take us much further than we want to go. As has undeniably happened since our last vote some 40 years' ago.

Quite simply, if we vote to stay 'in' this time we will effectively be handing over control of the UK to people we do not elect and cannot vote out. If we vote to leave the EU - quite apart from the fact that it would almost certainly fail almost overnight were we to do so - it would put the control of our future back in the hands of those of us who will be living it. And it is conceivable, if the EU were to survive the cataclysmic set-back of it's biggest customer (in the world) leaving, that we could 'go back in' on our own terms in the vanishingly unlikely event that it (the EU) succeeds in the end.

An 'out' vote would leave all options open to us. If the EU and the Eurozone is so good, so 'right' for all of the people of Europe (don't laugh) then we would always be welcomed back as the biggest economic 'engine' in Europe.

But if we vote to stay in, we will be propping up a failing (currently - and that assessment is not up for debate but a simple and plain fact) project. If we vote to stay in we will be part of that failure.

And our vote will just be taken as an encouragement for the EU to carry on its merry way towards economic Armageddon.

Just look at Greece or Spain or Italy. Most of all, look at France. Forget about the economic basket cases we are (the EU is) welcoming into this failing bloc. Look at France. It is (technical economic term) fucked. We and Germany are propping France up. The EU is a 1950s- designed solution. Look at how the world has changed since 1950.

The coming referendum is about whether we are a modern country, free to fly and to prosper, or stuck within a failed trading bloc that is effectively in managed decline and will be forever.

It is ironic that Scotland wants to leave the UK and join (or stay in) the EU. Gaining independence and then immediately giving it away. I think there are many people in Scotland who envisage a bright future based on Scotland being a real player in the world and trusting the endeavour and quality of its people. But there are more Scots who are just anti England and effectively want to 'hop onto' a bigger bus in order to protect their client state/benefits culture.

Either way I think the recent referendum, in which (in the end) they voted the wrong way and now will have to suffer the consequences, means that the rest of us will have the confidence to vote for change and to vote for us to leave the failing EU project and regain our freedom to stand on our own two feet.

Thanks for reading.