The House of Lords Constitution Committee has been asking some big and important questions about what happens if Scotland decides to up sticks and leave the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (although polling this week-end confidently seems to predict that this will not happen, not least because of the large numbers of English referendum voters resident in Scotland). The Committee's Report is one of the best analyses of the potential constitutional crisis which may follow; asking questions such as - will E, W and NI be a new successor state (i.e. with a need to apply to rejoin the EU?) or the same State just without Scotland (which is the predominant view of everybody save for the Scottish Government....). Another important question is what will happen with the Scottish MPs at Westminster (particularly during that weird time between yes vote and actual independence) and what happens on Scottish independence day if they leave their seats but consequently bring down HMG's majority? Who should negotiate the terms of independence and what happens to all of the UK's assets North of the Border (particularly of the nuclear military variety) and will the MOD move them all S just prior to the Big Day?
The potential for political (if not worse) strife if Scotland votes yes and all the shared assets have to be negotiated over is obvious and we just have to cross everything that this historic union has a little more life in it yet.........
