Scottish Independence: is this a good idea?

Europe, now enduring the financial and economic upsets, once more becomes area of political struggle, emerging as defense action to the vast integration processes uniting with variable success the peoples of rather controversial historical coexistence experience.

What is at issue is the phenomenon of so-called "well-fed separatism", waves of which periodically overflow unlikely not all prospering liberal democracies of the united Europe: in Belgium the problem of relations between Flanders and Wallonia is widely known, Spain is now undergoes sharp outburst of the Basques' and the Catalans' nationalism, the aspiration towards self-determination is regularly announced by Corsica's, French Brittany's, Northern Italy's residents and other European regions' dwellers. Similarly the UK is not the exception; its unity is now still being actively challenged by the Scottish nationalists.

Scotland being in the union with England and other UK countries since 1707, enjoys the limited autonomy within the Great Britain, and as well is entitled to uphold its own Parliament which is authorized to deal with the issues of health care, environment, education, transport, tourism and justice. Also Scotland has its own national Presbyterian Church. Nevertheless the determinative issues of taxation and foreign affairs are governed by London, including fields of municipal service financing and the redistribution of the funds received from North Sea oil and gas deposits running and Scotch whiskey export that consist the substantive part of the country's incomes. On the whole, now Scotland stays within the political, financial, fiscal, and monetary union with England and other countries of the UK, recognizing British monarch's sovereignty over itself.

Nowadays the issue of Scottish independence is being actively raised by the Scottish National Party, which since 2011 enjoys the unsteady majority in the Edinburgh Parliament. The declaration of independence from London is of paramount importance to the party lead by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, despite the figures acquired by a number of surges establishing that only up to 36-40% of Scots really support the aspiration towards the independence.

The SNP above all emphasizes the strictly political side of separation from the UK. According to Alex Salmond, Scotland, once acquiring the independence, would be entitled to be considered as continuing state of the United Kingdom, notably to become a member state of the European Union automatically, having amended the particular acts of the EU membership. Although the precedent of liberal EU member state's breakup will undoubtedly evoke disapproving reaction of the states that also in some degree undergo the problem of separatism: among them are Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands. From the other side, nationalists convince, rejection of independent Scotland entering into the EU would be the violation of all principal postulates of the United Europe.

In any case, according to the SNP, the independent Scotland would be capable to acquire the semi-automatic membership in the EU, having hold the negotiations on the representation in Europarliament. The future of the monetary union with the UK still remains indefinite as, according to the party's leadership, independent Scotland would unlikely stay within the sterling circulation zone for long-time period. The probability of Scottish joining the eurozone also will be unacceptable for the major EU states at least during the period of general crisis of euro and long-term recovery. Besides, rejoining the re-surging facilities funds in Europe, Edinburgh will also face the problem of stead increase of EU spending and the necessity to negotiate more or less acceptable level of its funding.

Moreover, the independent Scotland will also be deprived of the privileged approach to the EU funding as Edinburgh will not provide special backing of farm households unlike the UK. The substantive part of young Scottish state's incomes would be the yet mentioned traditional export of Scotch and active development of oil and gas deposits in the waters of Orkney, Shetland, Faroe Islands and Hebrides. However, these deposits are to be shared between the UK and Scotland. New independent state of Scotland is thought to be a neutral  nonaligned republic freed of nuclear weapons as well as objectionable to host the Trident missiles deployed in Clyde estuary. Nonetheless, relations with NATO and its security system still remains a stumbling block dividing the stances within the SNP.

The referendum questioning the matters of independence declaration is planned on autumn 2014, and prime minister David Cameron has already given his principal consent to conduct the possibly forthcoming plebiscite in Scotland. The ruling coalition of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats demonstrate the rare unity of stances with the Labour Party when it comes about the issue of independent Scotland, relying on the support of their allies, the Scottish Labour, who are the principal SNP's rival.

 "The idea of Scottish independence concerns only one person in the UK, and he is Alex Salmond", claimed David Cameron during the Conservative Party conference in October 2012.

Concurrently the fierce struggle goes on not only over the idea of the UK breakup, but also over the details of plebiscite's conduct: voting procedure, age franchise, credentials of Scottish Parliament and procedure funding. During the negotiations with London Scottish nationalists primarily demanded not only simple independence questioning, but also public inquiry on the expansion of Edinburgh's powers in the fields of taxation and governmental refinancing. The second question was subsequently denied by London government considering its ability to extend Scottish financial autonomy beyond the dependence on self-determination inquiry results.

It is also very important to notice that for the sake of the greater support nationalists reached out Cameron's principal consent on 16- and 17-aged teenagers' plebiscite voting. As the investigations show, the young Scots are traditionally attached to such radical political innovations in much greater degree than the older and much more moderate sectors of Scottish society. This unprecedented solution in British constitutional law was interpreted as the indubitable bonus to the nationalists' chances.

On  October 15, 2012 during David Cameron's short-term visit to Edinburgh an agreement on appropriate autumn 2014 plebiscite conduct was signed. Thus the unionist group "Better Together" and its separatist rival "Yes Scotland" are conceded to run their campaigns for the minds of Scots in forthcoming 100 weeks. As a whole, the deal despite being a concession of London, in significant degree embarrasses the SNP, because the matters of financing, conduct and legal control of future plebiscite are totally left on Edinburgh responsibility. The important aspect of nationalist referendum plan, the choice between the independence, denying it or the greater Scottish autonomy, is also neutralized by Cameron thus annihilating the SNP's chances to achieve the wider freedom in taxation and income refinancing.

Salmond as the Scotland First Minister would be totally satisfied with the "devolution plus" model, although the agreement opens the way exclusively for all Scots to reconsider their position in the UK, but unlikely gives a definite answer in favor of Scottish statehood's restoration.