When it comes to the economics this news article sum's it all up nicely.
The five charts that show how economically risky Scottish independence would be
Quick dot point's fom the article
- Cost to produce north sea oil is $44 a barrel but only selling at $48 a barrel, very little profits literally under $100m per an annum
- The deficit is actually 15 billion pounds and equal to 9.5% of the GDP
- Growth rate is around .02 per a quarter compared to the UK's .06
Add in that there solution to lower prices was to increase production says a lot about there fiscal capability.. Adding more capacity when it already exceeds demand will lower costs even more. Idiots.
Add in flow on effects from various industries with Scotland breaking from the UK and Scotlands fiscal stupidity they wont be able to sustain any mentionable shipbuilding industry because they neither produce much of anything that is exported and any orders for a future navy and/or coast guard would be too few and far between. There would also be the job losses from UK bases shifting away, with Faslane in a worst case scenario estimated to lose up to 11,000 jobs, Not to mention job losses in the oil industry with Scottish policy actively driving the price down making the industry more volitile.
Actually Scotland is to the UK what Western Australia is to Australia. When the prices on resources are high, The UK/Australia is stealing from us taking all this money.. Soon as the prices collapse and its hands out asking for money. Not any real independence move here though so there is that but those wanting it have no bloody clue about the long term impacts to there own economy. In fact on some level Scotland/WA leaving the UK/Australia would help the rest of the nations, in Australia's case has been found the high resource prices have caused more job losses in other industries then made in mining...
Cut short, No way Scotland could defend it's self, Its economy is already smaller then NZ's, it's in a worse financial position and lack's decades of experience to guide it. Any military budget would be in the 1% or less range cause they couldnt afford anything more. A handful of basic frigates, some OPV's, No combat aircraft, hand full of ASW/maritime patrol aircraft, dozen or so helicopters, a single AOR, etc etc.