To be serious, one thing I think the Scottish would miss is a voice in Europe. Currently they are part of a big economy (6th? biggest worldwide) with a population of 62 million, to a small economy with around 5 million people. The rest of the UK will still be a big player, but Scotland will be just another Slovakia.
Does anyone know - will an independent Scotland keep the pound, linked to the UK pound? Or will it float the Scottish pound or take the Euro?
Indeed, the EU is the biggest single open market in the world. The EU may be in turmoil right now, but a total collapse of the EU is unthinkable.
Though I'm not aware of any polls of how Scotland views Europe, nor I am aware of Europe being a big issue with the Scottish electorate. I think it's taken for granted that Scotland wants to be part of the EU. There's not the EU issue in Scotland that there is in England.
This however gives us a problem, if we stay as part of the UK our access to the single biggest open market in the world, that happens to be on our door step could be under threat. I've said it before, I don't think the UK will leave the EU, I think it's posturing, playing to the audience, a good distraction from real issues, but such dangerous noise and posturing if not nipped in the bud at some point, well who knows where it could lead.
There are questions about an Independent Scotland's membership of the EU, but I think in reality that's about detail, not whether Scotland would/could be a member.
But it's clear, I think, if Scotland wants to guarantee it's access to Europe, well Independence is the better option.
Oh we'll take the pound thanks. It's not unusual for two states to share a currency, and it's certainly not the terrible miss-match that some, a la EURO debacle, would have you believe that it might be. That's nonsense.
In the longer term Scotland would be under pressure to join the EURO. But that can't happen until the EURO has been stabilised.
Creating out own currency could be problematic, our oil wealth could create a rather troublesome strong Scottish pound, just as for England if Scotland dropped the pound, that could create troublesome issues of currency weakness.