Imagine if Bermuda held an independence referendum and allowed all residents including expatriates and their teenage dependents to vote while Bermudians living overseas were not allowed to vote.

“If that happened there would be a riot,” said Ian Hind, Secretary of the Caledonian Society. “But that is exactly what is happening in Scotland right now.”

On September 18, almost all residents in Scotland over 16 will have the opportunity to vote on the question ‘should Scotland become an independent country’. It is the first time in the United Kingdom that people under 18 have been allowed to participate in such an event.

The Royal Gazette recently spoke with a few Scottish people living in Bermuda and a few former Bermuda residents living in Scotland and asked them what they thought of the upcoming election.

“I am somewhat ticked off that people who reside in Scotland, no matter what the nationality, get to vote,” said Mr Hind.

“I pay taxes to the United Kingdom and Scotland and I can’t vote.”

Mr Hind said he paid tax because he had a small UK income from property.

But another Scotsman and long time Bermuda resident, Ian Cummings said he wasn’t particularly bothered by not being able to vote.

“I have been in Bermuda longer than I ever lived in Scotland so I don’t even qualify for a vote,” Mr Cummings said. “I think that is fair and reasonable. Only residents are qualified voters, even English nationals. Looking from the outside in, I think it is a little late for such a move. Scotland has been an integral part of a United Kingdom for too long. It doesn’t make sense to divide.”

Mr Hind was also against independence and said he was “terrified of the thought”.

“I think it would be a tragedy for Scotland,” he said. “I was brought up to have a very healthy suspicion of anything to do with any form of nationalism anywhere. I think the reaction of people in favour, for the most part, is an emotional one. The heart is completely ruling the head.”

He said Scotland had throughout the centuries maintained its cultural identity despite being part of the UK.

Cassius Fevriere, a former Bermuda resident, recently moved to Scotland to work in the hotel industry. He planned to vote in the election, along with his wife and son.

“Things are heating up out here with the elections but my honest opinion is that the country will remain dependent,” he said.

Scottish resident, Stephanie Hunter, said she hasn’t noticed any backlash against potential voters born outside of Scotland.

“They might not include me in that. I lived here for eight years in my teens and early 20s and apart from one brother still in Bermuda all my family are here and have been since the early 1980s. I have only had one person tell me to ‘go back to Bermuda’ and he is a Scottish guy I know from when he was working in Bermuda.”

She is against independence for Scotland, and has aired her views on her Facebook page. There was such a vehement reaction against what she was saying that she had to shut down the discussion. “It got ugly,” she said. “I didn’t like the nasty turn it took.”

Caroline MacKenzie, who works at Swizzle Inn, said she is still undecided.

“I don’t have a lot of the information I would have been exposed to if I lived in Scotland,” she said. “I have to research from here. To be honest, most of the information I have looked into seems too conflicting. Whatever one side says, the other refutes and from a distance it seems harder to cut through the chaff.”

She said her instinct was to vote yes. “From a societal and cultural point of view I am in no doubt, and my heart says yes, but my head has a lot of questions; logistical, practical and financial. “

Because she is not a resident of Scotland she can not participate in the decision.

“I find it interesting that the eyes of the world do seem to be on the vote,” she said. “I don’t know why, but that surprises me. I work at Swizzle Inn in Bailey’s Bay. When visitors ask where I’m from (95 percent think I’m Irish), they all know the referendum is happening. From the questions they ask, they seem to have more than a passing interest. It makes a change from talking about William Wallace and doing Shrek impersonations for the children.”

She plans to take the morning of the referendum off so she can watch the result come through.

“I can’t vote, but I do want to feel a part of things,” she said.

Shadow Immigration Minister Walton Brown who has often spoken out in favour of independence for Bermuda, said the campaign demonstrated that people could contemplate a new political reality apart from the United Kingdom, that would be both economically and politically viable.

He said the Scottish referendum showed that “fact based information, not emotional rhetoric, makes for sober and informed decision-making”.

“The pro-independence side lagged behind initially but as more information emerged and was widely disseminated support for the yes vote increased steadily,” he said.

Mr Brown said that retaining key aspects of British culture and political separation from the United Kingdom are not mutually exclusive concepts.

“This independence campaign has seen opposing parties come together to call for a “no” vote and the United Kingdom government make increasingly bold promises to secure that no vote,” he said. “I think the voters know acts of political desperation when they see it and will act accordingly.”