See that thing about an independent Scotland's EU membership?

[OhBuggerandArse]

A bundle of senior European conservatives have just said that Barroso was wrong to say that Scotland would be kept out. And accused him of saying he would because of pressure from the UK and Spanish governments.

"The threats formulated by Mr Barroso are inappropriate and the result of Spanish and English pressure. London is increasingly worried. They (the threats) are not credible. If Scotland votes for independence, it will stay in the European Union. It would be in England's interest."

He would? *It would, sorry (or are countries feminine?).

The problem is that there is no definite answer, no specific piece of legislation and no examples of this happening before. It's just 'he said this' but 'he said that'.

There is no way of knowing what will happen until after the vote.

It rather sums up one of the fundamental problems of the EU more generally i.e. the president is not elected democratically and does not represent anyone at all. He may prove to be right or wrong ultimately - no-one really knows. However it's not just Spain or even the UK that might object in principle to supporting bits of nations splitting off and going it alone. Belgium is divided very acrimoniously down the middle, for example.

Wouldn't rUk's continuing membership of the EU also be in doubt if Scotland voted for independence, as rUK would no longer be the same legal entity that originally joined the (now) EU?

In my opinion it doesn't make any sense for the EU not to give an Indy Scotland membership. Wouldn't it be a bit of a logistical nightmare with Scots living in EU countries and other EU residents living here if we didn't have membership.

rUk's continued membership of the EU would go without saying, they need money from London lol.

Perhaps they'll let Scotland buy their way back in too.

It just seems daft to me to gain independence, have your own fishing rights, oilfields. hydroelectric capacity and........hand it all over to the EU. Norway's rich because it stayed outside.