One of my greatest sadnesses at the prospective break-up of the Union is that it will set English, Welsh and Northern Irish against Scots in a bitter division of the debts and resources of the whole of the U.K.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Because Scotland and Northern Ireland want to remain part of the E.U., there is the quite real possibility that Scotland and even Northern Ireland might now choose to go their own way on membership within the E.U. and the 'United Kingdom' would suddenly effectively be only England and Wales.
No ifs, no buts - we will not share the pound if Scotland separates from the U.K.
If the U.K. were threatening to withdraw from Europe, I would certainly want Scotland to be out of that.
In this context the British and Irish governments will have to promote a new, imaginative and dynamic alternative in which both governments will share power in the north.
There is a real danger of the United Kingdom breaking up. There is a loss of common identity.
Like millions of Scots, I've agonised over whether to go for independence or remain with the Union.
I personally hope and wish that Britain will stay part and parcel of the European Union.
It's ironic that the growth of Scottish nationalism has precipitated in the English the sort of hand-wringing the Scots have always done over who they are.
In 1889, I predict, the legislative stage of the Irish question will have arrived; and the union with England, which shall then have cursed Ireland for nine tenths of a century, will be repealed.
Why should Scotland be stopped from suggesting to the English people that we join a new union under new terms? Let's not try to dominate one another. Let's be a collection, like being in the pub with a kitty. When we vote in Scotland, we vote one way, but the other country votes another way and we always end up with what they vote for.