This is not a great surprise to me. Scots do not take well to being ordered about by London. Maybe come voting day it might play on their collective consciousness. But I think that if I were voting on such a question and I were voting "yes" I would expect to have an independent currency. Scotland would not be very independent within a Sterling currency union.
The "no" campaign should really focus on the benefits of union. And that would seem to be that after 300 years of union most of Scotland's business is with the UK. So it would seem as seen by the discomfort Alex Salmond seems to think UK business will feel without currency union. It will go both ways.
I have said before though that all this is detail. The question is a moral one of self determination. Do Scots think that they are a country or a region. Are they a nation or an area of cultural difference like Yorkshire for instance. No one would claim there isn't a Yorkshire character and personality that also considers itself English. Do Scots feel British? Do they feel a part of something or are they a nation apart?
I think that they are at a crossroads, they could well be both, it is up to them. They are the same as us but have a slightly different history to England. They have their own sporting history. It is only as Olympians they compete as Team GB. Football, Rugby, Cricket to name a few all compete as independent states.
What is more important to Scotland, and I am not sure many realise it (Just like in England) is their relationship to Europe. Remaining within the EU is a far, far bigger issue than remaining in the UK. Being made to leave and reapply to the EU will, in my opinion, be for more damaging than anything the Treasury can cook up in London.
I have blogged several times about how the UKIP party have their heads safely buried in the sand to think the UK would be better off out of the EU. I know there are sovereignty issues that Nigel Farrage feels needs to be curtailed (I have no time for UKIP rank and file - they are people who believe we are being flooded because we chose gay marriage and that women - note Women - who do not clean behind fridges are "sluts").
For all it's faults (and there are many) it is still arguably the most economically beneficial club to be in. The UK would be less attractive to outside investors if we were not in the EU. Despite all it's daft quota's and regulations it is still a huge and wealthy market of some 500 million people. To be able to trade within it is worth more than one can person can comfortably count.
Health and safety is something that regularly gets slated in the press as being unnecessarily officious but I remember a time when, as a for instance, trucks from Europe had far better rear protection than UK lorries to the point that if you managed to run into the back of a French lorry your car would be a write off but you could walk away. A similar UK lorry of the time would decapitate you as your car slid underneath it's viscous belly.
To not not be in this club is financial and social suicide. So Scots should worry more about that than anything else.
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