NozzyNozzer said:
Ireland ought to be united, it's logical, but I'm not keen on their fundamentalist Protestants coming to England - so only if they were NOT allowed to choose. The Northern Welsh could opt for independence leaving South Wales united with England. The Cornish Nationalists could declare UDI as could the Scots. The oil is not automatically Scottish though - the Orkneys were sold to the English Crown by the Danish Crown in the 18th century, though geography might play a part in any international dispute resolution - and realpolitik! Also the Orchedians might decide to stay with England or more sensibly attach themselves to Norway or Denmark. Scotland would then become reliant upon two key industries: tourism and innovation. If they decoupled themselves from the EU however they would also have claims over their extensive fisheries, though the stocks remaining might render this a Pyrric legacy!
I fear most of the radical protestants are more likely to come to us, being mainly Ulster Scots, descendants of the Scots given land grants by King Billy to subdue the Irish.
I have pointed out before that the Orkneys and the nearby Sheland Islands are Scots, and have been for a considerable period before the 18th C.
from Wikipedia
"In 1468 Orkney and Shetland were pledged by Christian I of Denmark and Norway for the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland, and as the money was never paid, their connection with the crown of Scotland has been perpetual. In 1471 James bestowed the castle and lands of Ravenscraig, in Fife, on William, Earl of Orkney, in exchange for all his rights to the earldom of Orkney, which, by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland, passed on February 20, 1472, was annexed to the Scottish crown."
As to fishing rights, as a result of total disinterest by Westminster it is likely they will be worthless to any one before long, on the otherhand an independant Scotland may well copy the success of the Irish in using their diaspora to generate inward investment and regeneration of the Scots engineering industry, although there is already far more than whisky tourism and golf going on up here.
Peter