Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Tomorrow, in a grand plebiscite that includes 16-year-olds, Scotland decides whether to secede from the United Kingdom. There’s a strained economic case for seceding — all that oil money from the North Sea fields — but the real impetus seems to be the imagined joy of flipping off England’s Tories. The Scots would continue employing the Pound Sterling as their currency, something Paul Krugman considers deeply unwise.
If Scotland votes for independence, there’ll be renewed interest in succession in all the usual places, including Quebec and South Carolina, which never really stopped fighting the Civil War. I therefore thought it might be interesting to compare Scotland and SC.
 |  | |
| Scotland | South Carolina | |
|---|---|---|
| Area, sq mi | 30,414 | 32,020 |
| Population | 5,328,000 | 4,775,000 |
| Median household income $ | 44,378 | 44,625 |
| Pop density | 174 | 155 |
| Highest Point, feet | 4,409 | 3,560 |
| Last attempted secession | 1860 | |
| Major exports | Oil & booze | Tobacco & Lindsay Graham |
Scotland’s love of whiskey may come from too much listening to bagpipes, so to spare you from the bottle, I found the least whiney version of the song in popular culture perhaps most strongly associated with Scotland. Here, then, from the Devil’s Brigade, Scotland the Brave. May tomorrow bring a Scotland that’s wise.