What if scotland becomes independent

Menu Close. Log in Subscribe. John Boothman and Jason Allardyce. Thursday February 11 , 6. If the vote is in favour, first minister Alex Salmond says the country will separate in Thirty nine per cent of people in Scotland say it should become independent, 43 per cent say it should stay part of the UK and 17 per cent are undecided, which means it could go either way. If Scotland splits from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there will be implications not just for politics but for businesses and brands.

Few brands have spoken publicly about any plans if there were a split and Scottish Widows did not have anyone available for comment when contacted by Marketing Week. Scottish engineering company Weir Group said earlier this month that the benefits of a split would be few and uncertain.

Brands should take notice of consumers with clout as those on high incomes are most likely to see Scottish companies negatively, finds the research. However, questions remain as to whether Britain could still be used as a name if Scotland were separate.

If Scotland leaves the UK, is there a British brand? Scotland may need to have a lower value for its currency than the apparent equivalent Sterling rate. That is because it needs to competitively price people into jobs in Scotland. That would be the consequence of having an apparently lower exchange rate.

Lloyd highlights that Scotland no longer owns its largest banks. Between and , financial services has seen the largest indexed growth of GVA of all sectors in the country. If and when it went independent, it would have quite a difficult job, in the short and medium term, to become a successful economy. It possibly could do it; there are good universities, good research centres and a talented workforce, but it will take some time, and it would take a number of policies quite different from those that the SNP is presently [putting forward].

That is no longer the case. Oil prices have been dropping alongside demand and a global desire to embrace renewable energy over climate-harming fossil fuels has left the industry with an uncertain future. It is a help but a minor one. Despite this, Murphy agrees with Lloyd that more focused business reforms are needed from the SNP when it comes to energy. Outside renewable energy, there are a diverse range of sectors in Scotland that have seen promising growth in the past decade, such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing, construction, financial services and creative industries such as video games.

All of these sectors have the advantage of doing business in a domestic market that is 66 million people strong, and stands as the sixth-largest economy in the world.

Independence would cut this domestic market to 5. So is Scotland too small to survive and thrive on its own? Is Scotland too wee to be wealthy? An argument that is often touted in favour of independence is the comparison to similar-sized countries to Scotland that are performing well, both politically and economically. All of these things are more important than the size. Lloyd is unsure whether Scotland would be able to emulate these countries. The issue is not that these are small countries, the issues are that they have in one way or another coped well with modern conditions.

They argue that the referendum was, in Ms Sturgeon's own words at the time, a once-in-a-generation opportunity - which Mr Johnson has suggested should mean another one should not be held for about 40 years. Unionists say Ms Sturgeon and her government should be focusing on tackling Covid and improving public services like health and education rather than independence. They also say that rejoining the EU would not be a straightforward process for an independent Scotland - and could potentially lead to a hard border between Scotland and England.

And they accuse the SNP of failing to give clear answers to key questions over issues such as currency. There have been divisions in the SNP on how to secure another referendum. Ms Sturgeon has predicted that the UK government's hardline stance will crumble if there is another pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament after May.

But some MPs and grassroots independence supporters are not convinced that this will happen, and have accused Ms Sturgeon and the SNP hierarchy of being too cautious. This may be partly why a draft bill has now been published, setting out how a referendum can be held once the Covid pandemic ends if the May elections produces another pro-independence majority at Holyrood.

The Scottish government has not given a specific date, but says it wants a referendum to be held in the first half of the next parliamentary term. It says there can be "no democratic justification whatsoever" for Westminster to attempt to block it - but has not said what it will do if formal consent is not forthcoming.

Opinion polls, excluding don't-knows, had previously suggested a narrow majority of Scots want to remain in the UK - but things appeared to have shifted over the past year, with more than 20 consecutive polls indicating majority support for independence.