Of course Salmond won't bite. He is way too sharp to do that - he will ignore the option to run a referendum on Cameron's terms. What he WILL do, though, is use Cameron's move - "Tory interference in Scotland's affairs" (Scotland has ONE Tory MP) to strengthen his planned long-game progress towards an independent Scotland - from which he will not be deflected by this.

And he will succeed. I fully expect that Wee Eck is rubbing his hands with glee at the news from Downing Street. Cameron doesn't seem to appreciate quite to what extent Eck has total mastery of popular Scots politics at the moment.

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I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

Played right into Salmond's hands hasn't he? There's also the matter of 'an English identity' waiting to be hijacked.

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Mailwatch. Love us or leave us.
http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/

But is an independent Scotland a viable concept? Yes they have oil, but not a great deal of it, and any terms of seperation may well involve some of it being taken off them anyway ("English investment" probably a line of defence of this). Can a country fish its way to prosperity?

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

Exactly and it's not just English investment either, there was an enormous amount of American, Dutch and Norwegian investment into the development of the North Sea.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

The Scots economy is not wholly dependent on oil. And don't forget it's a small country of only around 7 million people. An independent Scots economy is certainly viable.

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I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

7 million isn't very many considering the size of the rustbelt.

Which, as far as I can see, isn't going to benefit much from the SNP and its "big corporations paying very little tax" economic policy.

I actually over-estimated - it's only 5.2 million !

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I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

I don't know if that makes it better- oil v rust?

I've never understood why Scottish independence ran out of steam in the seventies, when the oil came on stream.

Of course the Scots economy is not wholly dependant upon oil. The North Sea oil industry is declining rapidly and within the next 5-15 years will become a liability as the astronomical costs of decom overtake revenues.

Is an independent Scotland viable?
It's impossible to say as it depends on too many unknowns such as the nature of the independence, the reactions of other countries, businesses and other stakeholders and it also depends what you mean by "viable".
What would be the response of buyers of Scots exports? At the moment Scotland almost exactly breaks even in terms of it's net contribution to UK GDP, would it continue to break even as a smaller trading unit with higher costs?
Would Scotland be in the EU? Would they want it? Would the EU accept them? If so would Scotland receive any subsidies from the EU and how much would they be worth?
Would Scotland be part of the euro?
What about transport links and infrastructure? At the moment a large proportion of Scottish exports travel by road to English ports, would that continue? Would tariffs be imposed?
Would Scotland be part of NATO? How much would it's contribution be and at what cost?
etc etc

On the question of "viability". At what standard of living do you have in mind? The same as now? Lower? Higher? I know it's not a perfect comparison and times have changed, but Irish independence plunged that country into third world status for half a century. Still "viable" though.

Incidentally Scotland is much smaller than you think.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Release ... 4/27095112

I'm not saying it won't work and I'm certainly not Scotland bashing.
I'm not even saying that it shouldn't be tried.
I'm cautioning against making sweeping statements based on unknowns.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

In my view (speaking as a Scot, albeit an expatriate one) I think that Scotland would be crazy to decide to leave the UK for full independence. You're right to say that an independent Scotland could be viable in the understood sense of the word, but that the attainable standard of living in such an economy raises many questions and makes full independence, in my view, a leap in the dark not worth taking. It seems to me we'd be much better off staying put.

I do think that while having given Salmond his head for doing a good job in government, most Scots recognise this, which is why the notion of "Independence Lite" (aka "devo max") is so popular.

By the way, I did spot (see above) that I'd under-estimated the population of Scotland.

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I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

There was a report done by Plaid Cyrmu in Wales on small nations, I think it boiled down to Corporation Tax.

Maybe I'm wrong, but to some of my Scottish friends it's never been a big issue for them. More an invention of the English media. Not to say the SNP aren't popular, but they are very much happy to be part of the Union.

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My blog: https://stevenplrose.wordpress.com/

I lived in Aberdeen from 1991-1994 in the wake of the Poll Tax*, so possibly the high-water mark of the anti-Tory/anti-English feeling. Now, looking in from outside, the taste for Independence seems to have been satiated somewhat by Devolution.

* also, laughably, the impact of that fucking atrocious mangling of Scottish history that was Braveheart shouldn't be underestimated.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

Autumn 2014.....

Oil And Gas UK reckon a quarter of North Sea oil remains.

The SNP reckon half.

They're going to die on their arse in a referendum. They might still govern Scotland better than their opponent's though, and good luck to them.