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Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

Hardly at all. At the risk of a flame war (it's a perma-warm topic in the UK) Scottish Independance will have minimal up or downside when considered broadly.

There are lots of clever Economists who expalin how different choices will cost / bring in millions or billions but I have yet to see anything promising more than 2k per citizen - and to be honest I doubt anyone will move house to get a 2k pay raise, so the overall effect - minimal

of course some areas of Scotland are long term grindingly poor and recieive lots of start up credits (they are called enterprise zones) - but they are nit focused on HN style startups, services and light industry is the bigger recipien of enterprise grants.

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of course some areas of Scotland are long term grindingly poor and recieive lots of start up credits

My area in northern England is like this - you can't move for constant advertisements for "start-up events," in the local newspapers, on the local radio and so on. It just feels like a way of spending EU money. I don't think they actually hand out many start-up grants or credits, they just run these endless "events."

I live in a small town of 8,000, and they even have them every month there, plugged ceaselessly on the local radio station. It's quite a good way of propping up the local media with advertising revenue, but I'd be interested to know how many people actually get anything out of this.

"(it's a perma-warm topic in the UK)" No, most English people don't give a toss. It is a warm topic in Scotland so long as you don't ask how its going to be paid for.

some areas of Scotland are long term grindingly poor and recieive lots of start up credits (they are called enterprise zones)

I grew up near Greenock, which fits that description fairly well and found that the Scottish Enterprise system round there was not at all geared for anything remotely ambitious. Although I found that the people on the front line were great, as I delved further into the depths of the monster I just got circulated between stuffy box tickers, who seem immune to novelty as it is never their department. The whole experience was just depressing and completely unrewarding.

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