Is anybody allowed to shoot a plane load of Americans down whilst the squabble ensues?

I think it will be no, but it's getting far too close for comfort. And you can guarantee Salmond will want another go in 10 years time.

If it is yes, I predict as follows:

The next 2 years will be spent arguing over who gets what, rather than dealing with important issues such as the economy / terrorism / immigration / the NHS etc...We will probably have to get international arbitrators in, because it will get seriously messy and heated.

The EU will refuse Scotland entry. As they won't have control of their own currency. Major banks and businesses with head offices in Scotland will shut up shop and move south of the border.

The 'rest of the UK' will not see another Labour government for 25 years, possibly even longer.

In around 10 years time the people of Scotland will realise they have been sold a complete pup. There will be serious economic problems, mass unemployment, and their government will simply not have enough money to fund the huge public spending and social welfare programme that Salmond has promised. People will become seriously disgruntled, the country will go into economic meltdown like Greece, there will be rioting and the beginnings of a serious political movement to rejoin the union.

The sums simply do not add up. Salmond is like a 25 year old in a car showroom. He wants to drive the 4 litre sports car dream, and is going to stick it all on finance without any real thought as to how he is going to pay for it.

As for 16 years old voting, these people have been nowhere and done nothing and got no real life experience. Giving them a vote is ridiculous.

Personally I want them to stay. My employer has quite a lot of stuff going on up there, and my private pension is with a Scottish company. But that does sound rather self-serving.

It's probably the first vote in my lifetime I've become interested in.

I hope they vote for independence. I can't imagine they'll do a worse job running themselves than being the very junior partner in a union lead by David Cameron.

I don't think there should have been much of a campaign about sticking together. They should have simply made a statement that the union has been strong and worked well for centuries. But if the Scottish truly felt they could govern themselves independently then we'd make the split as quick and clean as possible and wish them well in the future.

Instead the English seem terrified at being dumped and threatening to fight over every issue and making things as tough as they can.

The biggest problem for Scottish independence IMO is English interference after they go. Refusing the pound isn't about what is best for a separated Scotland and UK, it's about trying to scare them into a no vote.

Cameron's latest gem is to say that Scotland will be at greater risk of terror if they split because they won't be protected by our defence and the security services. That's close to scraping the barrel. He'll be saying it's not what god would want next.

Scotland will be foreign country so why should English tax payers have to provide their health care or security. Salmond is confident he can cherrypick what Scotland would take from the rest of the Union. He is going to look a prat when the pigeons come home to roost on an independant country. He is totally relying on oil revenues apart from that they only have tourism.

pigeons and roosting, we heard it here first.

Apparently the 'fast air' element of the Scottish Defence Force is going to consist of 8 Eurofighter Typhoons.

At any point 50% will be in deep maintenance, and of the ones that are operational 50% are used for training. Leaving them with 2 functioning aircraft at any given time.

The only thing Scotland should be doing with the 8 Eurofighter Typhoons is selling them.

Who do Scotland need to defend themselves from?

My sense is that Highlands and Islands will vote Yes quite strongly. I would guess Edinburgh will vote No relatively strongly. The South - I don't know, would guess No. Glasgow - I think will be split and will decide it overall. I too would guess overall a No result but I now think it could go Yes but am hoping sense will prevail in the ballot box and there is a strong No vote. As a matter of interest, where are you based?

How do you work that one out?

Only twice since WW2 (1964, 1974) would Labour have failed to gain an overall majority.

Now compare that to the fact that in 1955 the tories held the majority of Scottish seats and now they are reduced to one.

Exactly. Its this that I don't get - They want to be 'independent' but still want Britain to provide them with all the nice stuff, like a currency, or a well produced, professional TV provider, like the BBC.... By all means go it alone, good luck to them, but things like the BBC and the Pound are the very things that make being IN a union a benefit to them - You vote out, and quite simply they should be exempt from all the things that Britain provides.