What, Scottish independence? I don't see why not, Ireland and New Zeland manage it.

The only real drawback is that their banks would be too big for an independent Scotland to bailout.


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Scotland a fcuked if they split.
Apart from being hit with a bill for their proportion of the national debt (which they helped to run up with free education etc), 70% of their employment is in the public sector so that'll have to stop, they haven't got any real exports & (this is the real kick in the balls) to do any trade with anyone they'd need to join the EU so they'd need to take the Euro as a currency (& that's been going great at the moment).

Salmon wanted the option of not being independent but getting more power (& money), quite rightly we said no.

I don't want to see the union broken up, so I'm not in favour of independence. However, I don't think that's Salmond's real goal - I think he's pushing it to get more concessions for Devo+.

It's a bit fuzzy anyway, to be honest. Salmond says he wants to keep Sterling, because even a nutter like him wouldn't touch the Euro with a pole - so how do you create economic independence with a shared currency?

Given a large part of the debt came from bailing out The Royal Bank of Scotland, that might be something of a hard sell...

(and another chunk of it comes from the welfare state, which Scottish residents benefit from disproportionately per capita to the rest of the UK)

Well he's blown that already. There was an option of Devo+ but he went for the full independence referendum. If he loses that, what reason does anyone have to then give him his second option? If he loses the independence referendum at this point, he (and the SNP) are politically buggered for a generation. Not quite as buggered the Liberals are down here, but not far off.


You can't. Scottish independence while keeping UK Sterling would be a sham, little better than what they have now. I suppose they could go for 'the Scottish pound' as a decoupled currency but that would preclude full membership of the EU.

I doubt the day after a “yes” result is returned that Scotland will be going independent.

There will be a load of negotiations and wranglings. Scotland has to prepare for independence:

Economy - it will have to establish a currency, a pot of cash on which to base it
Defence - we have a lot of stuff there - how that is administered will need to be discussed - as well as Scotland’s individual military might
Constitution - who will be head of state - the Queen, someone else? Republic or monarchy? Will the Queen still be allowed into Balmoral?
Citizens - who or when will you be a Scottish citizen? Will those who have homes both in the UK and Scotland be offered dual nationality, or will they have to choose?
Europe - in, out? Will the Euro be the requirement to join? Will there be passport controls on the English.Scottish border?
Tennis - will Andy Murray be properly Scottish when it comes to playing in Wimbledon, instead of being Scottish only when he’s losing?
&c.

It’s a huge task, and to expect it to happen anytime in 2014 seems a tall order to me. I expect a transitional period, starting in 2016 and lasting a few years as powers, etc. are handed over.

Well it also saved the English banks who all would have needed bailouts if RBS had defaulted.

If Scotland vote for independance then I think they are crazy.

No more handouts from Westminster under the Barnet agreement so they would have to finance themselves.

What about the public buildings - are some of them not owned by Westminster?

What would happen to the 1000's of people employed as civil servants for Westminster governments?

Scotland could not "stay" in Nato as they were never in Nato to start with - they would have to apply to join.

What about the currency? They could not keep using Sterling without the Bank of England agreeing to it.

Indeed not, although you could argue it's the point of no return.


These are in fact closely related questions. If Scotland wants to be a member of the EU, it will have to adopt the Euro. And will also be subject to EU freedom of movement rules, so can't impose border restrictions on EU nationals. if Scotland doesn't join the EU, then it has to establish it's own currency but can have whatever border regulations it likes. In reality of course policing the border between Scotland and England is a pretty much pointless task - if people want to cross between the two, they will.


The SNP has already said they will be rid of Trident although he lost the vote on not being part of NATO. As to the rest, there are a couple of air bases and what is (or is soon to be) The Scottish Regiment for an army. I don't think they'd have a navy as such but they'd have some coastal patrol vessels. Who exactly would they be protecting themselves against? Can't see the Danes getting back into rape & pillage somehow. They've got no real need for a large standing armed forces.


They couldn't be a monarchy as such if they wanted to be independent. They would either be a full republic or a 'soft' republic like Canada, where the queen is technically head of state but has no functional power whatsoever.


Given she owns it, that would be heck of a legal case if they tried to take it off her.


You'd assume everyone who has a legal right to vote in elections in Scotland would become a Scottish citizen. My personal solution would be to say all Scottish citizens who have current UK passports have implied dual nationality for the period of that passport and can then apply for another one when it runs out. I suspect in fact very few people would.


He's always been Scottish when he's played, apart from when he plays in the Olympics or the Davis Cup, then he's British. Of course that would have to stop, Scotland would have to compete as a separate nation as they do in the Commonwealth games. Given Chris Hoy will have retired by the time of the vote, I don't rate their medal chances much.


Indeed so, however there are many cases where the 'points of separation' are actually fairly obvious, provided people are being at all
sensible.

I was thinking along the lines Sas mentioned, we're in a similar position over here. We've got a right DUP cnut in charge of welfare alone, and his party colleagues are like the Tories with more venom (the spectre of water charges, stalling civil servants back pay they're legally entitled too, the list goes on) except the electorate could leave Sinn Fein in charge by default, so...

They wouldn't have to adopt the Euro, nobody is forced to do that, EU membership for an independent Scotland would be a formality irrespective of their choice of currency. They could continue to use the pound with or without permission. Nobody can stop them, just as the USA cannot stop Zimbabwe from using the Dollar. Or they can just do what Estonia does and have their own currency but peg it to another.