Independent Scotland
Scotland starts with an enviable reputation and a strong international identity. This international brand is one of the most important assets as a country. Even without independent status, Scotland’s international brand value already ranks 15th out of 50 nations according to international comparisons published in 2012. Scotland has continually scored highly and is ranked similarly to – and often ahead of – other comparably-sized, high income, democracies such as Denmark, Finland, Ireland and New Zealand. This provides an excellent starting point and the move to independence will, in itself, deliver a boost to Scotland’s international recognition.
The Scottish Government has proposed an 18-month period between the referendum and independence, was believed to be realistic for the terms of Scotland’s independent membership of the EU to be agreed and all the necessary processes completed. It also provides sufficient time for the Scottish Government to undertake the necessary legal and institutional preparations for independent EU membership.
The SNP appears to envisage an independent Scotland which is outward looking, with a strong maritime focus given its geographic position. It would be keen to collaborate closely with northern European neighbours and expects to work with and through the UN, EU and NATO. The Scottish armed forces will comprise 15,000 regular and 5,000 reserve personnel, operating under Joint Forces Headquarters based at Faslane, which will be Scotland's main conventional naval facility. All current bases will be retained to accommodate units, which will be organised into one regular and one reserve Multi Role Brigade (MRB). The air force will operate from Lossiemouth and Leuchars.
Regular ground forces will include current Scottish raised and restored UK regiments, support units as well as Special Forces and Royal Marines, who will retain responsibility for offshore protection.
The Scottish armed forces will be focused on territorial defence, aid to the civil power and also support for the international community. The Multi Role Brigade structure and interoperable air and sea assets will provide deployable capabilities for United Nations sanctioned missions and support of humanitarian, peacekeeping and peace-making 'Petersberg Tasks'.
The Scottish defence and peacekeeping forces will initially be equipped with Scotland's share of current assets including ocean going vessels, fast jets for domestic air patrol duties, transport aircraft and helicopters as well as army vehicles, artillery and air defence systems. A Scottish defence industrial strategy and procurement plan will fill UK capability gaps in Scotland, addressing the lack of new frigates, conventional submarines and maritime patrol aircraft.
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The terms Scottish, Scot, Scots, and Scotch are all variants of the same word. They have had different histories, however, and in modern English they have developed different uses and connotations. Scotch is an adjective meaning "of Scotland". The modern usage in Scotland is Scottish or Scots, and the word "Scotch" is only applied to specific products. Scots is used, like Scottish, as an adjective meaning "of or pertaining to Scotland." However, it tends to be used in a narrower sense to refer specifically to the form of English used in Scotland.
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The ISO 3166-2 code "SCT" would be taken over into ISO 3166-1 for the three letter code. But Scotland does not have a two-letter country code - a digraph. If a top level domain name has any more than two letters, then it is not a Country Code Top-Level Domain, but a Special Interest Domain. Even the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey have their own internet country codes (.im,.gg and .je respectively) but for some reason for Scotland does not. SC would seem a likely candidate, except it's already taken by the Seychelles. (SO, ST, SL, SA, SN, and SD are also already all taken.) It's possible for Scotland to acquire an already-used code from a smaller country. Some other possibilities include: .ab, taken from Alba, the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, or .ce, taken from Caledonia, the Latin name for Scotland.
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While Scotland is a small nation it has big ambitions. Coverage of an independent Scotland contains "forward-looking statements" – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future political and financial performance and financial condition, and often contain words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "see," "will," "would," or "target." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about growth; changes in law, economic and financial conditions, including interest and exchange rate volatility, commodity and equity prices and the value of financial assets, including the impact of these conditions; the impact of conditions in the financial and credit markets; pending and future mortgage loan repurchase claims and other litigation claims and investigations in connection with WMC, which may affect estimates of liability, including possible loss estimates; ability to maintain current credit rating; reduced energy demand. These or other uncertainties may cause actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in forward-looking statements. Certain forward-looking projected information based on current estimates and forecasts. Actual results could differ materially.
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