I tend not to post comments on Scottish nationalist blogs because they’re generally greeted by a torrent of racist abuse or wildly inaccurate paraphrased quotes from SNP propaganda.  However, I made an exception for Richard Thomson’s blog – Scots and Independent – because he seems to be fairly well adjusted for one of our celtic neighbours.  I don’t usally re-post my comments on my own blog but I thought this one was worth reproducing in reply to a claim that Scotland’s GDP is £111bn because of “oor oil”:

You’re making the mistake of assuming that when the division of wealth, resources and liabilities takes place prior to independence, Scotland keeps what has been so generously donated to it.

The maritime border between England and Scotland used to follow international convention which dictates that a maritime boundary is an extension of the land boundary. In the case of the Anglo-Scottish border, this meant that England’s territorial waters extended north east and north west. I believe it was in the 60s when the boundary was moved with the Continental Shelf Act (I could be mistaken on the name) to extend at a parallel conveniently placing most north sea oil and gas in Scottish waters. The English weren’t consulted on this mass transfer of resources.

Then there is the national debt. Pretty large and Scotland has had more out of the coffers than it’s put in for a long time.

You’re also assuming that as a terminally socialist country, Scotland doesn’t turn into an overburdened, border-line communist state and end up vying for bottom place with Albania.

The gravy train for Scotland started 300 years ago with the money England gave to make Scotland somewhere near solvent again after bankrupting itself trying to colonise Panama. Scotland has benefitted hugely from the English empire which was later expanded as a British empire. For the last few decades Scotland has been receiving subsidies worth billions thanks to the Barnett Formula. Until Scottish Labour took over, Scotland was in the periphery – over-represented at Westminster but always in the shadow of England.

Can Scotland suddenly go from being the proverbial kept woman to a working woman without actually becoming the other type of the proverbial “working woman” selling herself to the EU?