Theres plenty of oil in Scotland isn't there?
There's a bit, but what industry do they have when it runs out.
Whisky and haggis farming
True, but the amount of tax made on oil must supplement quite a bit of the scottish economy.
Something that never seems to get mentioned is even if the oil ends up being under Scottish territorial waters, the companies who are exploiting it are not Scottish and will not choose to be, meaning that most of the profits from the oil would leave the country.
Would the scots not then tax the oil companies appropraitely ?
Yeah, but there's more to live than taxes. Every major "Scottish" company will have a major decision to make about whether to remain British, or become Scottish and there'd be a significant risk in moving from one of the world's largest economies to a brand new country which would be starting from scratch. I don't think many will see that as being in their business interests and most will stay British and pay the majority of their taxes to the UK.
Wonder if Alex Salmond would answer the question of what would've happened had scotland been independent during the financial crisis - two of the world's top banks, and most affected banks, HBOS and RBS, were based in Scotland. It would've basically finished the country off to bail them out. the bailouts would've been many magnitudes larger than those needed in Ireland.
Scotland needs to admit they have the best of both worlds right now - ability to make their own policies and get the rest of the UK to help pay for it, or at least to shield scotland from the full-on financial consequences of their policies.
there'd be no such fiscal freedom in an independent state. all this free tuition, free prescription stuff isn't going to last once they have independence. personally having lived in scotland i think they've got it great - one last hold-out against the evil forces of neo-liberalism who seek to f*** over everything and turn all our cherished services into profit-driven entreprises. i used to think it was unfair that Scots got their university tuition for free, and it basically is unfair on the English students, but now i just see it as "oh well, at least there's one place that's not f***ed it up yet".
Then there's all the f***ing bureaucracy and mind-numbing minutiae that would have to be addressed and sorted out in the event of independence. not least for the hundreds and thousands of english in scotland and 800,000 scots in england. or anyone who frequently travels or does business in both countries. which is every company in the UK. and how do you divide up north sea fossil fuels? or the london-based companies who mine there? and the armed forces loyal to the Queen? what do they do with their currency? make a new one? then what happens if exchange rates fluctuate so that bread costs twice as much in gretna than in carlisle? basically they'd have to peg it to the UK pound sterling - so much for true independence there. maybe they'd join the Euro after all. superb timing that would be
What about crossing the border - as a new EU nation will they sign up to Schengen? gonna need passport checks at Edinburgh Waverley then? It'll no doubt make moving house or moving jobs between one area of what is now the UK to another more of a hassle too.
Nah, it's a f***ing s*** idea when you get down to it, based on little more than a bloody mel gibson movie.
