Salmond In warning to Westminister

[Dr Roberts]

So he is serious with this independance lark. Personally I am against the idea of Scottish Independance as I want for one day in the future for everyone to be United but anyway http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-15411188

[Starglider]

Scotland has 8.5% of the UK population but only 6.0% of the UK GDP. If they assume liability for 8.5% of the UK's existing debt on separation, they would have an instant 108% debt-to-GDP ratio and a far lower credit rating, putting them directly into the PIIGS bracket. Don't want to assume liability? No problem, the British Treasury can confiscate as much Scottish wealth held in the UK financial system as it takes to pay it off. That should fun since public spending is currently 21% higher per head in Scotland versus England, so removing the cross-border subsidy will leave them with instant austerity on top of the instant debt crisis. Of course that's just the current situation, by the earliest possible time independence could go into effect, the eurozone will be a disintigrating mess and the UK itself will be past 100% official debt-to-GDP and starting to experience serious trouble. Even without getting into division of existing debt the effect of splitting the union on the value of the Sterling and the UK's credit rating, whether Scotland keeps it or not would be pretty bad. It could well result in all nations involved going into terminal financial crisis, which should be fun since IMF and EU rescue facilities will probably be completely exhausted by then.

So basically this would be a disaster for everyone involved, but the Scottish in particular. Of course this is muck-raking regionalist populism by a bottom feeding politician, so I doubt those realities really factor into the rhetoric. The line about paying for everything with oil money was particularly amusing, considering that the UK oil production peaked in 1999 and has been declining steadily since then.