to wonder how Scotland's decision will affect england?

[LEMmingaround]

Just that really? If they do go their ownway how will it affect england?

Also will it open a can of worms with wales and northern Ireland?

Italy also have a problem with northern independence; they arrested several campaigners just for arranging a demonstration IIRC.

It's not just getting into the EU and everything is rosy either; it's totally conceivable that these countries insist on harsh entry requirements for Scotland. We'd need to negotiate a Schengen opt-out, for example.

For the record the only countries without a central bank are
Andorra
Monaco.

Andorra's ministry of finance operates as a central bank.
Monaco uses France.

I am pregnant and worrying about fitting in the polling booth

Well when the republic of Ireland became independent we maintained sterling as the currency for a number of years, then brought out our own pound which was linked to sterling until the 1970's. Now we have the euro of course which has worked out so well ....am surprised Irelands link to sterling have not been mentioned in the debate actually

you could of course set one up but you will need the IMF to act as the lender of last resort - you will need to peg your currency to the SDR (which is traded in USD).

Going to the IMF doesnt play out terribly well domestically - they not only like to tell you what to do - but with Lagarde in charge - they get it ever so slightly wrong economically

But Ireland had a central bank. Then the punt was pegged to the pound.

At no point was the BoE the lender of last resort or the central bank in Ireland. Home rule prior to the IFS set much of it up.

Though to be fair there was the gold standard which made a lot of the currency issues easier- but then there was bretton woods, the gold standard - ah takes me back to the underlying issues around the great depression, the heady days of weimar - the cabaret, the parties - the inevitable slide to global conflict.

You could always print money?

If things will get peachy for England...

Why is the Tory government desperate to keep Scotland?

I genuinely think that's a very interesting question

I'm a Scot living in England, the biggest change I'd forsee would be further pressure on London & the Home Counties in terms of house prices & school places because of the migration of Financial Services staff from Scotland.

The Tories have committed us to years of austerity to bring down the deficit; any extra money floating about wouldn't be used to improve social or living standards, it would be used to bring down the deficit.

I feel very ill-informed about currency mechanisms in light of the indyref debate & really can't get my head around what phrases like sterlingization means/how sterling is different from the pound(is it? I'm inferring it is because they aren't used interchangeably) & haven't a clue how people can calculate whether overall capital will increase or decrease for the Scotland/England should the Union be broken as the figures used seem to depend on bias!

Several factors, Fanjo.

It would be embarrassing for them to 'lose' Scotland, which is a decent enough chunk of the UK, even if it doesn't typically vote Tory.

Then you get into the practicalities of the split, which will be absolutely huge and complicated. There's also the General Election to worry about. The Edinburgh Agreement made the outcome legal, so there's no going back, but the rUK public will be very invested in the division of assets etc.

Once you've done that, Scotland is a smaller country and also would depend on oil and gas. Both of these points would make it more likely to feel the shocks of the world economy. We would still be very close to/ entwined with England and if independence went catastrophically wrong, there would be knock on effects, economically, socially (through immigration) etc.

Not so peachy then

Nope, it's certainly not going to be a clear Heaven and Hell divide.

That works for both arguments

Fanjo I don't think it is that interesting. What government would want to be responsible for breaking up the union? Especially if there was a narrow yes win, that would mean millions of people who wanted to remain part of the UK left behind or moving south.

Fanjo I don't think it is that interesting. What government would want to be responsible for breaking up the union? Especially if there was a narrow yes win, that would mean millions of people who wanted to remain part of the UK left behind or moving south.

Fanjo I don't think it is that interesting. What government would want to be responsible for breaking up the union? Especially if there was a narrow yes win, that would mean millions of people who wanted to remain part of the UK left behind or moving south.

Which wouldn't be 'peachy'

I have tried to Google but can't find the answer, at least not in a way that is clear enough for me to understand it. Does anyone know who is paying? Firstly for the referendum process, is it coming from the Scottish Parliament's budget or is the whole of the UK paying? Secondly for the costs of breaking apart if that is how the vote goes?

When are you due Santana? Have you thought about postal or proxy voting? (no pressure! )

Oops am on phone with ropey connection.

Something that doesn't get talked about a lot is the impact the ongoing separatist movement in Quebec has had on investment in Montreal in particular, as the biggest city in the province and one of the major Canadian cities.

Montreal's status as a safe place to invest has declined over the past decades with the on and off separatist movements and a lot of companies have shelved plans for investment over the years or in a minority of cases, pulled out.

Think there are parallels with Scotland.

I'm still waiting for the cringe worthy love in to be held in Edinburgh or Glasgow the days before the vote a la what happened in Montreal in 1995. That's when people from all over Canada travelled to Montreal pleading for Quebec residents to vote no in the referendum.

As the polls keep showing, it's probably going to be a No. As a Yes, that saddens me but I would hope dearly for us then to get devolution as far as possible.

That would be a good legacy for this process to leave behind. The other, much less pleasant legacy will be a heightened awareness which will take ages to subside of the ill will and animosity held against the Scottish people by many south of the border. Since the Indy Ref debate started, I've seen a nasty side to MN which has left me pretty disillusioned at times.

No need for a central bank? Oh dear lord preserve us.

I am, along with most of my friends, desperately worried about a "Yes" vote. I am English, married to a Scot, living in Scotland with our 2 Scottish children. But we are not English / Scottish - we are British.

A "Yes" vote will make me into a foreigner, much as Eck says I will get a Scottish passport, I don't want one. We will move to England but un entangling our lives here will be hard, and expensive. Eck keeps offering a glorious socialist future with benefits a-plenty for everyone. I am not a socialist. My friends will leave Scotland, fairly rapidly as their companies re- deploy them. My money is in England, in English / British banks. It may not be safe. What about my pension? My mortgage?

I don't want to live in a small, remote, unimportant country, I want to live in Britain. A "Yes" vote will cost a bloody fortune for all UK taxpayers as the bureaucrats and technocrats begin their endless meetings and the process of wrenching things apart. Like all divorces, the lawyers will be the only winners and the split will be traumatic and acrimonious.

Actually, the whole thing has already caused huge damage to relationships - families, couples, friends, colleagues are all divided and rebuilding things will be hard, even after the No vote I am praying for.

So non socialists will all leave if it's a 'yes' vote?

I can't speak for them all but not everyone embraces Eck's Socialist Republic of Scotland ideal. In fact, the SNP were historically fairly right wing but he is desperate to court the Labour voters. Not desperate enough, however, to agree to meet the ship-building unions who he has repeatedly refused to talk to.

Bit oxymoronic there, Rose. Britain is nowhere near as important as some still grasping onto the colonialist glory days would like to think.

The UK is the US's lapdog. We do what they tell us. China, India, Russia... any number of countries could outstrip us in so many ways.