Quote Originally Posted by Penarth Blues View Post
I agree with your viewpoint about looking for reasons why it would work - I've pointed out advantages that I think we have, and also why I think we're trumped by England in almost all respects for people looking to come North if we decide to become independent.

I've spent a significant portion of my life working with Europeans and I think we have an amazing country, but we can't cut ourselves off from the rest of the world if we become independent so we have to look at what we can offer than no-one else can.

My best suggestion to becoming self-sustaining is to become a really expensive, high end destination where we limit numbers coming into the country to maintain quality of the experience for those here. Unfortunately that would mean most of us could not afford to live here and I'd prefer to stay.

What's your suggestion as to how we could make this work? India has tied up the cheap Maths/IT end of things, I'm not sure what else we can offer that we could export...
I would be hoping for a government that would nationalise energy, transport, communications, (not fully nationalise but maybe in the way Welsh Water or Cardiff Airport are run), investment in infrastructure, get our own businesses to supply and build our roads, rail, buildings etc

Make sure that if someone is capable of working, give them something to do, care for others, improve your community.

Give our youth something meaningful to do with their time rather than wandering the streets at night, looking to entertain themselves with mischief.

Invest in education and the sciences, look to the future even if it means borrowing now.

Instil a sentiment of self-belief, pride and self-esteem in people, get people to care for their surroundings and their communities.

I would even legalise drugs in the same way Portugal has successfully done it. Look at it as a public health issue rather than a criminal one.

Make a bigger deal of our culture and history, encourage tourism. Get our film industry up and running. There's all kinds of things we could be doing as a nation if we got stuck into it rather than continue in this eternal malaise.