Scots, What the Heck? NY Times

Next week Scotland will hold a referendum on whether to leave the United Kingdom. And polling suggests that support for independence has surged over the past few months, largely because pro-independence campaigners have managed to reduce the “fear factor” — that is, concern about the economic risks of going it alone. At this point the outcome looks like a tossup.

Well, I have a message for the Scots: Be afraid, be very afraid. The risks of going it alone are huge. You may think that Scotland can become another Canada, but it’s all too likely that it would end up becoming Spain without the sunshine.

Comparing Scotland with Canada seems, at first, pretty reasonable. After all, Canada, like Scotland, is a relatively small economy that does most of its trade with a much larger neighbor. Also like Scotland, it is politically to the left of that giant neighbor. And what the Canadian example shows is that this can work. Canada is prosperous, economically stable (although I worry about high household debt and what looks like a major housing bubble) and has successfully pursued policies well to the left of those south of the border: single-payer health insurance, more generous aid to the poor, higher overall taxation.

Does Canada pay any price for independence? Probably. Labor productivity is only about three-quarters as high as it is in the United States, and some of the gap may reflect the small size of the Canadian market (yes, we have a free-trade agreement, but a lot of evidence shows that borders discourage trade all the same). Still, you can argue that Canada is doing O.K.

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The final push for Alex Salmond’s land of fantasy, Telegraph

It is Thursday morning on Buchanan Street, Glasgow’s busiest shopping thoroughfare, and Scotland’s First Minister is doing what he does best: smirking.

Working his way through a boisterous crowd of placard-wielding Yes supporters, Alex Salmond revels in the adoration of his fans and poses for countless “selfies” with starstruck Nationalists out to pay homage on the 10th anniversary of his return as leader of the Scottish National Party.

The choice of location for this event, right in the middle of Glasgow, is very deliberate. With less than a fortnight until Scots vote on whether to leave the United Kingdom, Scotland’s largest city has turned into the front line in the referendum battle. To win, the Nationalists need to convert voters in the west of Scotland, where Labour has traditionally been strong.

Mr Salmond, a gambler and racing-loving punter who relishes the thrill of the chase, is confident he has Labour and the Better Together pro-Union campaign on the run. “The ground is shifting below their feet,” he says.

The race has certainly tightened. Last week, a poll by YouGov showed the No lead narrowing sharply to only six points (53 to 47 per cent when don’t knows are stripped out).

It prompted concern at Westminster, and in the City the markets were spooked. Investors who had presumed there was no chance of a Yes vote sold off shares in companies that trade on both sides of the border between England and Scotland. Polls this weekend are expected to show Yes getting even closer.

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Kevin Maguire: I'm willing you to vote for us all in Britain instead of Salmond, who wants to be King of Scotland, Daily Record

I’D be gutted, absolutely gutted, if Scotland dumps me. We rub along pretty well and you want to end 300 years of history?

Come on, you can’t be serious.

I’m British and don’t want to be a foreigner when I come to Scotland any more than I want Scots to be foreigners when they go to England or Wales.

We’ve so many ties and been through a lot together so it seems daft to divorce so Alex Salmond can play the big man.

We Geordies have more in common with you Scots than we do with the Surrey stockbroker belt.

I hail from South Shields on Tyneside and grew up reading The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals at Christmas.

I flicked little plastic Subbuteo football players in Celtic and Rangers strips.

I cheered when Archie Gemmill scored that 1978 World Cup goal with that lovely mazy run and gorgeous left-footed finish against Holland.

I wasn’t so happy a few years later, it’s true, narrowly escaping a beating at Wembley by the Tartan Army’s militarised wing.

But we’ll let that pass. Newcastle hoolies chased this Sunderland fan a fair few times so it matters little whether the pursuers were in kilts or black and white stripes.

And I’ll confess when I bumped into Gary McAllister on a train last week I fondly recalled his missed penalty the day England beat Scotland at Wembley in Euro '96.

I’m an England football supporter – though that’s not easy with Roy Hodgson’s dreary excuse for a team – but I still want Scotland to beat Germany tomorrow with Steven Fletcher scoring the winner.

So don’t let Alex Salmond con you into believing us lot don’t care or want to be shot of Scotland.

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Surge in support for independence sparks 'great deal of concern' in Buckingham Palace amid fears over Queen's role in a separate Scotland Daily Mail

  Palace aides concerned the monarch will face a constitutional crisis after poll

  Queen may appoint an Australian-style 'governor general' to rule in her name

  Experts fear independence could throw up divided loyalties for the Queen 

  In 1977 the Queen said: 'I was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom'

The growing prospect of Scotland voting to leave the United Kingdom has sparked a ‘great deal of concern’ in Buckingham Palace, sources close to the Queen have revealed.

Senior palace aides are increasingly concerned that the Queen will be thrown into the centre of a constitutional crisis in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote on September 18.

Experts have suggested she may be forced to appoint an Australian-style ‘governor general’ to rule in her name.

Prime Minister David Cameron is in Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, with the Queen today and is expected to hold talks over the crisis. Mr Cameron has travelled alone without his wife Samantha.

The Queen has not intervened in the debate on independence, but has previously publicly praised the union.

In a speech she gave to MPs on her Silver Jubilee in 1977 she said: ‘I number kings and queens of England and of Scotland, and princes of Wales among my ancestors and so I can readily understand these aspirations.

‘But I cannot forget that I was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

‘Perhaps this jubilee is a time to remind ourselves of the benefits which union has conferred, at home and in our international dealings, on the inhabitants of all parts of this United Kingdom.’

Constitutional experts fear independence could throw up divided loyalties for the Queen if there was a clash between Scotland and the rump-UK in the future.

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