Hemmelig, I agree completely with that comment. I would also go on to say that because devo max or something approaching it would force whatever government was in power in Scotland to take a large dose of fiscal reality that it would also create conditions conducive to the revival of centre right politics north of the border.

I’ve made the point on here before that for as long as the Scottish government has to look to London for the majority of its funding it will be nigh on impossible for a centre right party to make any electoral headway. The current constitutional position contrives to create a situation where Scottish politics is dominated by questions of how money should be spent rather than how it is raised. The Scottish government takes credit for distributing freebies and will blame London whenever it is unable to do that. It is a situation where the SNP gets an easy ride, and where a party of the centre right simply cannot thrive.

I said before the 2010 GE that I would like to have seen my party pledge to hole an early referendum on independence. As things have turned out the government has had to acquiesce to the holding of such a vote in any case. I think the party’s failure to make such a pledge was a missed opportunity.

I am perfectly aware that I am in a minority in my party on this issue. However I hope more Tories in Scotland begin to realize that there is no future for the Conservatives there as the party of “No”, perpetually defending the last redoubt against any further increase in power for the Scottish government. The party should embrace the idea of an independence referendum and greater fiscal autonomy as the best way of salvaging something from the union that Labour’s ill thought out reforms placed under threat.

I will make one more point on the question of Scotland of an independent Scotland retaining the pound as its currency. As far as I can tell Scotland would be perfectly within its rights to do that irrespective of the views of the government of the remaining UK. Montenegro currently uses the Euro as its currency despite not being a member of the EU. Prior to the advent of the Euro it used the Deutsch Mark. Of course the only problem with using somebody else’s currency is that you also have to accept somebody else’s interest rates. That might prove to be a problem for Scotland, but I would suggest that Scotland’s economy is sufficiently integrated with that of the rest of the UK that any problems that did emerge would be far smaller than those suffered by the likes of Ireland, Spain and Italy as members of the Eurozone in effectively having German levels of interest rates for so many years.

But longer term, if they are forced to generate themselves everything they spend, it could force the Scottish to finally attack the dependency culture and political corruption in the central belt, and to make their economy more dynamic and growth-friendly.

Of course it might also go the other way and degenerate into a basket case which we have to eventually bail out.

I doubt the SNP would have any objections to this, and the vast majority of Conservatives would see it as a fair compromise.

However it would be calamatous for Labour as not only would they lose many Westminster seats, they would also lose a huge gene pool of leadership talent. A significant number of the most talented Labour politicians have come from Scotland. Scottish Labour politicians are generally better at relating to ordinary working class voters than their counterparts from English inner cities, who tend to be more wet, wonkish and liberal in the Ed Miliband mould.

Will come back shortly on other interesting points made here

Presumably you mean in the case of full independence? Under devo max there would be no question that Scotland would keep the pound and the Bank of England would remain its central bank.

Personally I do not see the advantage to England in making it hard for the Scots to get their independence or devo max if that’s what they want. It is up to them to decide. If they decide they want to keep the pound it would be more a question of whether they would be truly independent as their interest rates etc would still be set by London according to the conditions of the non-Scottish economy. Also as with Greece, Italy etc, there would be strict rules about their fiscal arrangements should they want to continue to use the pound which should protect the rest of the UK.

If we negotiate a fair deal, devo-max should work out well for both England and Scotland. Personally I would trade most of the North Sea oil revenues, which will be temporary given that the oil will run out one day, in return for the end of Barnett subsidies and the satisfactory solving of the West Lothian question, both of which would be permanent improvements for the English.

So no need for Scotland to return more than a dozen or so in their similar situation.

Any successful campaign against independence has GOT to be led by Labour figures in Scotland. Tory and Lib Dem leaders-particularly those from south of the border-will only alienate people in Scotland. The truth of course is that ALL those Scottish Labour figures and more have a large part to play.

On devo-max I have to say it sounds fair enough-although I’m not sure it should be the subjectof any referendum. Surely increasing the scottish parliaments powers can and should be done without referendum. Only abolition or reduction in its powers would require one surely.

But if Scotland were to have complete fiscal independence and would-as I understand it-raise ALL of their own money and spend all of their own money, firstly I think that would be good for the rest of the UK because it would mean that Scotland’s unsustainable political system would at last be brought with a crash back down to reality as scottish people have to finally make tough decisions about what they fund.

and secondly, I would argue such a situation in Scotland should mean a very very substantial reduction in the number of Scottish MPs attending Westminster (I mean down to something like 10 or 15 representing very very large European like constituencies). Given that scotland would effectively be independent in all but name with devo-max, Scottish MPs can no longer be allowed to have an over-powerful voice at Westminster as well. There would simply be little need for more than about 15 Scottish MPs in the ‘new world’.

I’d love that but unfortunately I suspect Salmond would love for this to be dragged out for years due to legal challenges etc.

In my opinion there is no mandate for devo max to put in the referendum as well (as it can only really come about from proper negotiation and cross party consensus etc).