UK confirms debt pledge ahead of Scottish referendum

[dipsydoodle]

(Reuters) - The British government confirmed on Monday that it will take responsibility for all British government debt should Scotland vote for independence in September, a move it hopes will avoid jitters in bond markets ahead of the referendum.

"In the event of Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, the continuing UK government would in all circumstances honour the contractual terms of the debt issued by the UK government," the Treasury said in a statement.

An independent Scotland would be responsible for "a fair and proportionate share" of Britain's liabilities but a share of the outstanding debt would not be transferred to Scotland, it said, adding the terms of repayment would be subject to negotiation.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/13/uk-britain-scotland-debt-idUKBREA0B0N820140113

[steve2470]

1. Any chance Scotland will actually become its own nation ?

Simply curious, thank you as always.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I'm not fussed either way

but personally I do think they'll stay as part of the UK.

If they didn't stay there would issues in them joining the EU as a separate nation. UK wouldn't block an application but likely both Spain and Italy would.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Possible but unlikely

Personally I hope they don't, but that is for the utterly selfish reason that the rest of the UK would probably then be doomed to permanent Tory rule (Scotland sends many Labour MPs and only one Tory).

Up to them in any case!

[tjwmason]

4. Unlikely but possible.

From what I've seen and heard, the majority of Scots don't want independence. The Scottish National Party holds a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament, but won them on the basis of having run a responsible and well-regarded social-democratic government not on the basis of enthusiasm for separation from the rest of the U.K.

I think that the biggest chance of independence in the referendum comes from low turn-out with more highly motivated nationalists voting in larger numbers than complacent unionists.

Whatever happens, as has been said, it's now in the Scots' hands and they get to make the choice about how they're governed.