As someone who originates from Yorkshire (and saw the effects of the Tory government in the Eighties), lived in the south east of England and now lives in Scotland, I really do hope that Scotland sees sense and stays with the Union.

If Scotland breaks away, then that'll have a very serious negative effect on the rest of the UK - especially the huge influx of migrants into England (the SNP are all for relaxing the borders and allowing tens of thousands of migrants into the newly independent Scotland - and guess what their first action will be - to jump on a train straight down to London...).

I don't know anything about this but I couldn't help but do some reading on wikipedia, for what that's worth. I couldn't really narrow it down to even a few dominant issues. There seem to be dozens.

I guess a big one has to be oil revenue though since 90% of the production would fall within Scottish waters.

It's interesting that the SNP wants to be included in NATO although want to evict the Trident submarine base.

They also don't want to seem to allow free passage across borders w/o showing a passport except to and from England and Ireland - unlike other EU countries.

Anyway, although the pro-unity group seems to have lost a lot of ground in the polls in recent weeks, it seems that the latest ones are still within the margin of error with at most 51% of likely voters supporting independence. Personally I have my doubts about how much faith you can put in polls. People have a tendency to say one thing and do another.

edit: btw, is anyone watching the Starz series Outlander? It takes place in the 1740's in Scotland around the time of Jacobite revolt. I can't help but wonder if it wasn't timed for this referendum.

Markets do not like uncertainty.