Quote Originally Posted by Donanddusted View Post
I agree entirely that support for other parties would definitely rise but if you mean Tory government would look to rejoin the UK, well, they'd need another referendum for starters and who is to say the rest of the UK would want us back?
I think that is a strong possibility if Scotland became independent now. As Sillars says, this is the worst possible time to hold a referendum. Not just because it is hard to win it, but if we did become independent our finances are in such a truly shocking state that it would be almost impossible to make a success of the economy, hold up public spending and not have to tax everyone a lot more. This is as things stand now without any other shocks such as any financial institutions moving out to close by cities such as Newcastle.

A bad economy makes it more likely to get a conservative led government in an independent Scotland and more likely that there would be support to go back into the Union. It would not take a big swing to win that referendum - so why wouldn't the tories back up by Labour and Lib Dems go for it?

Would the rest of the UK agree to this? Who knows, but my gut feeling is that if Ireland ever did have a referendum to rejoin the UK (unlikely that that is), would the UK not take them back? I believe they would. The terms of re-entry back into the UK would depend on how bad the economy was in Scotland at the time but it was unlikely we would get such good terms e.g. Barnett formula etc.