By 'people in power', I assume you're talking about someone other than our elected representatives. Because - and call me cynical if you like - I doubt many of those fsckers care one way or the other about the UK or its people, except when it affects their ability to make loadsa money.

As a pro-independentist Basque myself, I quite understand what those feelings are all about. It's not all about economic situation, but I can't see the outcome as either a catastrophe nor a merryland. It's yet another change - and change is always tough. We suffered when we joined the EU, prices went up etc... and we will suffer again if we leave. That's much I'm pretty sure of.

And I believe that, by now, we should be mature enough as a society that we can take our own decisions on whether we want to be part of a bigger structure or not; and then deal with the consequences of that decisions. Sadly, that is pretty rare...

Just ask us Basques, for yet more fun.

That is exactly the reason why the UK will stay ;-).

You could argue that the UK is amongst the countries with the biggest net benefit of being in the EU. The EU in general has could them a lot of slack in terms of responsibilities without ever cutting much into the benefits they receive.

(Benefits of a EU membership is more than just the money you get out of subsidies. A lot of stuff factors in. The biggest benefactor of the EU is without a doubt Germany. Yet we are also the biggest spender.)

There isn't a single country that is of worse because they joined the EU. There are plenty of cases where the EU could and should have done better. But it was always better than the option of never joining.

It's not so much an issue of diversity as an issue of unity. The US is enormously diverse, but (for the most part) the various cultures aren't really at odds with one another, and there's a strong national culture to tie everything together. This is very different from Europe, where centuries of infighting have led to the different groups HATING each other despite many similarities... and there isn't really a strong unified European culture like we have here. It's the friction (often historical in nature) that causes the problems more than anything else.

So comparisons between EU and US economies/cultures IS silly, but not for the reasons you've listed.

Wait a sec folks... This whole thread was started by an article in the GUARDIAN -.- A paper which is the first ever to be banned from reporting on parliament!

But... but... I vividly remember seeing some TV program as kid about some Texan activists which wanted independence for Texas because they at least used to be better off with their oil income and stuff? I'm pretty sure I wasn't just watching Dallas, but it was some TV documentary. EDIT: Awww sheeet, somebody mentioned this already.

About US states being different (and still getting along fine): now think if each state had its own language so you'd practically have to learn a new language each time you moved to another state. I think that is one of the biggest differences between EU and US when thinking about possible integration, even if there may be places in US where e.g. Spanish or French might be even more commonplace than English.

You could argue about the finer meaning of the word culture. But eg. Europe has no single unifying Holiday like Thanksgiving or the 4th of July. Even on such basic levels as sport there are striking differences between varying EU cultures. (No, football isn't No 1 sport everywhere ;-) ).

My impression on the diversity of the US is that it is on a "deeper level". You have maybe seven bigger culture groups made up from the original population of America and the different countries of origin from the Immigrants (England/Holland/Germany/Spain/France) and "waves of immigration" (Irish, Africans, now Hispanics and Asians).

But they also get a lot better assimilated. Which simply doesn't happen in Europe, as there is no "bigger culture" to assimilate into.
Really? Wow, I did not know that.

Isn't that illegal? (Freedom of Speech/Information and all that)

Catalonian, Basques... same difference. We're both insane - but on a delightfully nice way. Just don't let them know I told you.

Many people, specially from USA or Australia, don't realize how different the EU is. The idea that you can hop on a bus in Belgium, travel for 3-4 hours, and could get to about 4 different countries with different language and culture is often beyond them, until they start traveling. I've met many on my travels so I should know.

The day I heard "Oh, you're European? I was there once. I visited Europe in a week" I was too shocked to even laugh at the guy.

Well, having a single language really helps on that front. The Civil War also helped not only to teach folks what secession really means, but it also led to both greatly increased federal power and greatly increased national unity. For all of the griping we Southerners do about losing the Civil War, it was indubitably the best thing that ever happened to us. The Reconstruction, on the other hand...
Free speech is really more of a guideline in the UK. It's not institutionalized the same way it is in the US, by a long shot.

Ha, we had one satire that was banned from entering the parliment's grounds anywhere beyond the gate.

It wasn't anything disgusting - on the contrary, it was fair criticism with a dose of humour.

And the reporter was banned from entering the "premises".

Freedom of speech my ass.

They were using private internals and parliamentary proceedings aren't officially public record...

Failing economies likes of greece and portugal got in i doubt scotland would have much trouble, especially considering the icelandic fishing fleet that have larger catch quotas than we do.

So what? If they are not obliged by law to keep national secrets secret, they do no wrong.

It's the press. It's their job to dig to the things that are hidden.

They are legally obliged to keep national secrets secret :P thats what the official secrets act covers :)
The rules have been tightened since then.