Scottish independence

So far as Queen's consent goes, there is no distinction between the crown estate and the private estate. The Queen's consent is sought on legislation which affects or may affect (a) the prerogatives of the crown; or (b) the official or personal/private property or interests of the monarch., and she has the same opportunity to use the process to her advantage whether that advantage accrues to her in her official capacity or in her private capacity.

So the crown estate/private estate distinction is not relevant here. It would at best complicate the article to bring it in; at worst make it misleading, implying that the queen's consent process operates differently in relation to the crown estate and the private estate. It does not.

The Financial Times have a front page story tomorrow that the UK Govt have drawn up contingency plans to relocate their 4 Vanguard Class Trident ballistic missile submarines away from the Faslane base on the Clyde, in the event of Scotland seceding from the Union.

While the Devonport base at Plymouth is preferred, its proximity to large centres of population isnt ideal and so overseas options including a French submarine base in Brittany and a US base in Georgia on the Atlantic Coast have been factored in.

The ignominy of having to base the UKs entire nuclear deterrent outside of Britain ought to drive some Brexiteer gammon into apoplexy.

Don't think there would be any urgency in relocating Trident. Could happen over time.

BTW very good drama on BBC 1 ATM called Vigil. Based on a murder aboard a Trident sub.

The thing is the Navy and military always mean jobs, not only service personnel, but also government contracts, shipyards, etc... This does not only concern Trident, but also other matters. Also if Scotland would be independent as a country, they would have to provide some kind of navy. They probably won't have submarines but more something Ireland has.

The problem with Scottish independence has unfortunately many facettes: ( and it's certainly not that easy as Nicola Sturgeon likes it to be )

Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are overall obsessed with independence, and obsession is always a major failure. ( History taught us that many times )

Many public things in Scotland are either for free or offered at less cost than in the rest of the UK, - the money from London to Scotland flows steadily to support that. ( Nicola Sturgeon certainly doesn't want to be reminded of that, nor does she want to comment this subject further, but most of her current promises are based on funds from London )

Scottish business is for a large majority doing business with England and the rest of the UK rather than the EU. Financial businesses, like Standardlife, or Scottish Widows, etc. would probably relocate their business or part of their business to the rest of the UK to serve their UK customers....

EU membership for Scotland is not automatically and seamlessly guaranteed if Scotland was independent from one day to the next, even though Nicola insists it is that way.

The question of currency, citizenship and defense are today unclear and unsolved and so were they in the last referendum. Would they really trade the British pound for a weaker currency? ( for a decent currency they need a good trade surplus ) Or British citizenship for Scottish citizenship ( in the beginning neither part of EU or the UK ) ?

Scotland also has an aging population, more so than the rest of the UK, so they'd have to have an open immigration politics.

All that considered, Yes, Scotland could potentially be an independent country, however independence will come at a very very high cost and the first 5 to 7 years will most likely be very very difficult. Also it is neither certain nor guaranteed that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP will still be in power by then. There is always the overarching responsibility question with politicians in any country.

But there will be an on-base store which I would imagine would hold in the order of 10's of tonnes of munitions, propellants, etc.

A case in point on the power of this was the explosion in a warehouse in Beirut last year. This was only fertiliser, not powerful modern explosives. There was a lot of it (2750 tonnes) though.

When this exploded the explosions was equivalent to about a 1Kton of TNT. This caused a 125m crater with damage recorded in houses 10Km away.

So Plymouth is currently living with fairly substantial risks already from Devonport.