The consequences for leaving the EU were well-known and kicked in within hours of the votes being tallied last week, but didn't stop the English from voting to do it anyway. And if we're going to allow the English to be that reckless on the basis of a single simple-majority vote, I don't see why we oughtn't let the Scots do the same.

But you're going to need a new one: the euro just became a lot more credible than the pound as a currency for Scotland.

I'm not claiming to have an answer one way or another there, but it seems a bit of a risk to just assume that.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit-...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36629331

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/25/sturgeon-see... We knew all along that Scotland was strongly pro-EU.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-3561...

And that the only reason a bunch of people in Scotland voted to stay in the UK was because of promises about staying in EU.

If the question of post-Independence EU membership is resolved on the EU side I'd love to know, during the last referendum the EU was pretty clear there would be no automatic entry for Scotland. But whether that was true or politically driven... guess we'll find out.

There was a question last time about whether Scotland would automatically inherit EU membership or would have to apply for accession. IIRC, the EU wouldn't answer the question directly because Westminster refused to ask them. I'm guessing Nicola Sturgeon might be keen for this question to be cleared up.

That's an extremely common fallacy. The banks were bailed out not by the countries they were based in but by the proportion of their wealth that belonged to citizens of each countries (roughly, it is slightly more complicated than that). Only a small proportion of the "Scottish Banks" wealth was actually that of Scottish citizens. The majority of it was English wealth along with a few other countries, therefore England would have had to bail out a sizeable chunk to avoid the economic ramifications of these "Scottish Banks" collapsing.

No. Sturgeon is just playing up to her base.

I suspect it's even more simple – Sturgeon thinks that Scotland should be part of the EU, is backed by a clear majority of voters, and will take all steps possible to try and keep the country in the EU.

Scotland is effectively a one party system, which is quite dangerous, never mind that the common man/woman do not see this.

Scotland currently has a parliament in which no single party has a majority. That's essentially as far from a one-party state as it's possible to get.

You might call it a one-party state in the sense of representation as Westminster, but that's down to an outdated electoral system more than anything else.

The consequences for leaving the UK are well known.

That might have been the case (though I don't think it was) but it's clear that those consequences are likely to be substantially different now. The UK that existed at the time of the last referendum will no longer exist.

Companies aren't going to stay in because of Europe. They are going to move over the border.

I'm not sure there is any evidence of that at this point. Few companies said they would do that at the time of the last referendum, so it's difficult to see why this would have changed.

Also. The UK rescued the Scottish banks. Scotland will have to take on half this debt. Will the EU bail out Scotland? Will there be Greece style terms?

The UK rescued the UK's banks – not 'Scottish banks'. These were banks that were Scottish in origin, but with most work conducted in the City of London, and which paid taxes to the UK treasury. It would be obviously preposterous to expect Scotland to bail out London-based banks, given that it does not receive the associated tax revenue.

So with the debt, companies leaving, not getting much tax receipts. How will Scotland pay for the FREE tuition, FREE healthcare, FREE this and FREE that, they like to promise? Is the EU going to be sending them FREE monies?

Your argument seems to presuppose that the Scottish economy will collapse, which seems unlikely. Maybe it will result in a tightening of budgets such that some things which are currently free at point of use will no longer be so.

Finally and this is where I tend to laugh the most. Once Scotland joins Europe and the Euro. How is Scotland an independent state in Europe? How have Scottish people not realised this? Go look at Greece!

People in Scotland are well aware of that. There is a trade-off of sovereignty for stability and economics; Scotland might be subject to EU law, but in exchange it gains access to the single market. It's possible to be both an independent state and agree to international treaties.

Oh and the UK won't let Scotland use the pound. I can tell you that now!

The UK has no say on who uses Sterling.