Scottish independence referendum 2017?

[joevsimp]

So I'm not in Scotland, but last time I said that if I was voting, the biggest thing holding me back from voting Yes would've been worries about it destabilising the situation in Ireland.  now it looks like that mess is getting stirred up anyway, might as well get on with it.  

I know it seems opportunistic, but Sturgeon is right to want Independence for Scotland to be on the agenda for Brexit negotiations  

[joevsimp]

The other question has to do with how another vote would be possible. With the SNP short of a majority in the Scottish Parliament, who do they rely on to force a vote? Is it the Scottish Greens that give them the votes to send it the people?

Quite likely, they were part of the Yes campaign last time, and they are generally less Eurosceptic than the E+W Greens

the Lib Dems would also probably vote for a referendum, but I don't know if they'd support independence or not (I suspect that they don't either)

[joevsimp]

One issue is that Sturgeon truly believes that Scotland as an EU member state could hold on to the pound, while the EU has made it clear that all new member states are obligated to adopt the euro after a transitional period. Brussels has no real incentive to make an exception in the case of Scotland.

not strictly true, Denmark (and the exUK) have official opt outs, the Swedes have an official policy of intentionally failing to meet the criteria for joining and the Poles and others are also dragging their feet

to me the obvious route after independence is to keep the GBP for a year while setting up a mint and a central bank (or working out how scotland's note-issuing commercial banks operate from now) then bring in a separate Scottish pound pegged to GBP for a while before letting it float off, stability is maintained through the transition and the issue of adopting the Euro is kicked safely into the long grass for long enough to keep everyone happy