The Scottish Independence vote

Stuff reports:

Scotland will hold a vote in 2014 on independence in what could result in the eventual breakup of Britain, a British government minister said on Tuesday.

The announcement ended months of stalemate between the Westminster government in London and the Scottish devolved administration in Edinburgh.

‘‘What will happen is that Westminster will devolve the power to the Scottish parliament to hold a single-question referendum on whether Scotland should be in or out of the United Kingdom,’’ Scotland Office minister David Mundell told Sky News.

‘‘We anticipate that happening in autumn 2014.’’

A straight up and down vote is a win for David Cameron. The SNP wanted an in-between option which would have seen them gain powers without responsibility.

Support for independence is well under 40%, and hard to see that changing. Personally I’m not sure it would be an entirely bad thing, as losing Scotland would mean Conservative Governments almost always in the rest of the UK. And the SNP would then have no reason to exist, once Scotland was independent.

What chance Scotland would join the Euro  or even the EU, based on the current situation in Europe? Pretty low.