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"there was one 35 years ago"

The 1979 referendum was about devolution (which Scotland has had now for a while) not independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_devolution_referendum,...

Given that referendum, an independence referendum was always possible. It was probably only during the 80s that it didn't seem possible, and was definitely being talked about by the time I lived in Edinburgh 15 years ago. Devolution was always seen as a process towards strong local political representation, whether or not ending in full independence (aka membership of the EU).

EDIT: I should note at this point, I honestly don't care how the vote goes and have very little interest in it. To me, it's been a long ongoing process that will probably follow the same rough path and end in the same rough place whatever the vote is.

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