Scotland's Choices

The Referendum and What Happens Afterwards

Iain McLean, Jim Gallagher, Guy Lodge

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780748696390
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Constitutions
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Scotland faces its biggest choice since the 1707 union – should Scotland be an independent country? The Yes and No campaigns are well under way but with the vote looming closer the information available to the public is still limited. The Scottish people will have to make their own judgments, and so they need to have the issues explained as clearly as possible without spin or bias. What will happen after the referendum? How will Westminster and the rest of the UK respond? What happens if the vote is 'No'? Is it even clear what independence will mean? What about the oil? What will the currency be? What will happen to the Old Age Pension pot if the UK splits? Scotland's Choices, now fully revised for the critical last few months before the referendum, tells you everything you need to know before you place your vote. Written by one former civil servant, one academic and one think-tanker – one a resident Scot, one a Scot living in England and one an Englishman – the authors clearly explain the issues you may not have considered and detail how each of the options would be put into place after the referendum.

Table of contents

• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Tables
• Figures
• Preface to the Second Edition
• 1 A Referendum on Independence
• 2 Independence for Scotland: What would it Mean in Practice?
• 3 The Calman Commission and the Scotland Act 2012
• 4 The Possibilities for More Devolution
• 5 A Social Union? Welfare and Citizenship in the UK
• 6 The Principles of Fiscal Federalism
• 7 Oil
• 8 Devolution and Separation in the United Kingdom since 1707
• 9 After the Vote
• Bibliography
• Index