I heard about this on the weekend. Sounds very interesting, actually. I'm not sure of how important Scotland is to the UK in terms of income generation or tax revenues (and I cbf looking, been looking at numbers all day today - hence I'm doing words now), but if its beneficial for the UK to 'cut them loose' on a dollar-to-dollar (or is that pound-to-pound) basis, I reckon they'll go for it. The UK is up a fiscal shit creek at the moment, moreso than most other governments, and I dare say they would sell a kidney to pay the bills...not that losing Scotland would be the equivilant of losing a kidney - again, I don't have the numbers here. Scotland seem to be doing it for more nationalistic purposes than anything, although IIRC the radio story I heard on the weekend led me to believe that the Scots are a net loser fiscally of the union at the moment.
Anyway, I think this bit of the article sums it up quite well in a political sense:
The roots of this crisis lie far back in British history. After co-existing under the same monarch for a century, in 1707 a poverty-stricken, failing Scotland agreed to enter an “incorporating union” with England, in which Scotland gave up its independence in return for access to English markets and to the widening English empire overseas. But there was a fateful misunderstanding between two very different constitutional traditions. The English regarded the union as irreversible; the Scots, then and now, regarded it as a treaty that could be modified or even ended by mutual agreement.
Fortunately, we don't live in the 18th century, and so we won't have long boats filled with bards darting across the ditch to raise buildings. If the UK really want to stop this, they will attempt to do so politically and politically only. Scotland seems pretty keen on the notion, as do their population, and so I can see this happening. Although I am literally going by a) what I've read in that article and b) what I remember from the radio story on the weekend.
Side note #1: I find it ironic that Britain decided (on behalf of the UK) to jump out of the EU fiscal compact, now their own fiscal compact is breaking
Side note #2: Damn, the NYT has some meaty articles. Refreshing.