It's nothing to do with Braveheart though. That was about a war between Scotland and England. Scotland became part of the UK not as part of a war. They were not conquered. They wanted to join England because they were dirt poor and England was benefiting from trade with it's colonies. Scotland tried to set up it's own colony (in what is now Panama) but this failed miserably due to sickness/bad planning/misfortune/inability to fight off the Spanish. The failure of the Caledonia colony left Scotland basically bankrupt and they ended up forming the UK with England a few years later. They wanted to join with England to benefit from English trade.
If Scotland vote for independence they will lose out economically. Will they form their own mini-NHS? Won't Scots be barred from specialised medical treatment in England, like GOS Hospital? Scots have a lower than average (for the UK) life expectancy and thus they will pay more per person for a mini-NHS than the current one, especially as they will have to set up their own management/bureaucracy infrastructure. What about an army or navy? The British Armed Forces won't protect Scotland anymore. You could not just strip out the Scottish from the RAF/British Army etc. The Scots would need their own armed forces? How long would that take to set up and build a new Navy/AirForce/Army plus Coast Guard? What about prisons? Will prisoners who have offended in England but are currently in Scottish prisons have to be transferred to English prison and vice versa?
What about border controls to prevent smuggling over the Scots border into England? Different laws will result in different taxes on various goods, thus encouraging smuggling. How can Scotland have control of it's fiscal policy if the Bank of England is in charge of it's currency linked to Sterling? What about pensions - if you've paid contributions into a UK Government pension for decades but now the Scots Government will have to pay that or have to seperate out the Scots pensions from the rest of the funds? How complicated will that be?
Ironically the recent recession has made a yes vote more likely as recent conditions lead more to want a change to the status quo, but the recession has also made Scotland poorer and so made it tougher for them to foot the bill for the increased bureaucratic burden that the new administrative infrastructures for going independent will require.
Scotland deserve the right to take a vote on it, but I cannot see that a yes vote will succeed.
