Bye bye, Britain

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yes it is British oil, but the region that allows that claim to the area is Scotland. If historically Scotland wasn't part of the UK the oil would be either International or Scottish it would be very hard for England to lay a claim to it given the geographical location.

Now if the oil was then inherited by Scotland they would need the EU about as much as Norway does.

Which is, as you should have guessed: rather a lot. Oil may make you hypothetically very rich but there's not an awful lot of jobs in actually getting the oil out (though granted there are not that many Scots either). Fishing alone is a bigger source of employment in Norway, IIRC.

So with all the large employers having a strong incentive to move operations south of the border (UK government) or at least stop hiring the Scots, to whom would the Scots look for their next pay check?

They would also be able to convince HQs for oil companies and their stock listing to transfer from England to Scotland.

What would be the impact to London and thereby England if the highly improbable but not impossible happening went all Scotland's way? Loss of oil fields, banks, oil companies etc? Would England really be better off or would it be at a loss?

Question: are the English really going to let the Scots walk away with all that? In any case this what-if scenario is critically dependent on an awful factors being decided in Scotland's favour and even then it cannot happen without at least tacit approval and criminal incompetence on the part of the English government. As for the last part, if you put it that way it doesn't sound entirely impossible but to me it seems highly unlikely that the English won't get at least a fair chunk of those oil fields.

[InsaneApache]

You would also have the Royals in England all year round. Surely that is a cost to far.

As you are well aware she's also the Queen of Scotland.

Interesting perspectives from our American friends on Canada and Australia. I wonder if you are aware that there are a lot of immediate family ties from the UK to both of those countries. I have first cousins in both countries, my wife has family in Oz, my ex has family in Canada. In fact nearly everyone I know has relatives in either or both countries.

They really are our cousins.

This is part of the problem. The UK has always looked outward. Probably because we are an island race. The day we ditched the commonwealth in favour of the EU was a disgrace.

One thing though. Given the democratic record of the EU, if we do get a referendum and we vote the 'wrong way', will we have to keep having referenda until we give the 'right' result?

Time for a cuppa.

[HoreTore]

Which is, as you should have guessed: rather a lot. Oil may make you hypothetically very rich but there's not an awful lot of jobs in actually getting the oil out (though granted there are not that many Scots either). Fishing alone is a bigger source of employment in Norway, IIRC.

Depends on how it's done. If all you do is pump up the oil, then no, there's not a lot of jobs coming from that. If you establish an oil industry as well(ie. making platforms and such), then there's a lot of jobs.

But yeah, the EU is still needed regardless of the oil. The standardization work the EU does is very important for small countries like Norway and Scotland.

[Sigurd]

Which is, as you should have guessed: rather a lot. Oil may make you hypothetically very rich but there's not an awful lot of jobs in actually getting the oil out (though granted there are not that many Scots either). Fishing alone is a bigger source of employment in Norway, IIRC.

Depends on how it's done. If all you do is pump up the oil, then no, there's not a lot of jobs coming from that. If you establish an oil industry as well(ie. making platforms and such), then there's a lot of jobs.

Even if you don't have yards building platforms - you still need depots for the oil/gas and perhaps refineries.
You need rotation crews on all 24/7 installations. With 2 weeks on and 4 weeks off you need 3 people for every position. You separate operation and function i.e drilling.
You need logistics - equipment from and to installations (land, sea) and depots for this (ship yards to build rugged north sea ships - lorries you import from sweden).
You need maintenance - installations on-shore for repairing machinery and pipe tools, inspection, modifications (stuff wear out quickly in the north sea). Extreme conditions and high operation levels (stuff shouldn't break down) demands high intervals on preventive maintenance.
You might need equipment manufacturers - If you are on a technology edge - innovation and manufacturing "needs" to be close at hand.
Least but not last - a bloated bureaucratic organisation to run all this - with heavy back end IT solutions which needs - maintenance, support, modifications etc (could be outsourced to India, but you still need locals with industry understanding).

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Question: are the English really going to let the Scots walk away with all that? In any case this what-if scenario is critically dependent on an awful factors being decided in Scotland's favour and even then it cannot happen without at least tacit approval and criminal incompetence on the part of the English government. As for the last part, if you put it that way it doesn't sound entirely impossible but to me it seems highly unlikely that the English won't get at least a fair chunk of those oil fields.

I suppose we'll have to ask the Welsh and the Irish, but no I don't think so. The Scottish National Party want a lot of things, oil being only one of them, and they'll need to compromise on some of them.

If they get all the oil, they'll have to accept a full share of the UK's National Debt, along with the Euro and having to reapply to the EU.

Salmond has created apathy in the rest of the UK towards Scotland, though (as per his plan) so we no longer really care.