>> And talking of driving licences, won't every driver in Scotland need a new licence issuing
>> (at who's cost)?
Whose cost? The licenceholders' of course.
>>
>> And if Scotland reneged on it's share of the national debt (I can see why
>> they might)... what happens to pensions?
As you said, pensions are paid out of the current account anyway.
The general principle of the proposed finances seems to be that having the oil taxes for themselves will substitute for the subsidies from (essentially) England with enough left over to cure all other ills. But I don't know whether there has been any agreement of which bits of the North Sea 'belong' to Scotland anyway; and of course the oil could run out - Eck is gambling (and coming out with "estimates") that there is much more oil left than anybody yet knows about.
The reneging on the debt thing is an extrapolation from UK's perfectly logical (and necessary) statement that UK will stand behind Scotland's share of the debt - it has to, because the bondholders bought UK debt, not Scottish debt, and not guaranteeing it would be seen as a potential default - UK's borrowing cost would shoot up. But that doesn't mean Scotland wouldn't owe UK the money. And Eck's cavalier attitude to debt won't have done an independent Scotland's borrowing prospects much good either.
I really hope they vote no. I have thought about moving to Scotland but independence will knacker it.
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