All you need to know about Scotland's economy, its finances, independence and Brexit.

The 2016 Scottish vote for remaining in the EU received no consideration by the UK government for possible special arrangements.  The prospect of a new independence referendum gains credibility as the paper shows the constitutional convention on consultation was considered irrelevant by the UK government.

Scottish independence would be 2-3 times more costly than Brexit over 15 years. Rejoining the EU wwll make up part of the difference in trade value.  This made headline news for a time.  The methodology has been questioned.

Independence, then, might be inevitable, but it has to be contemplated with some sense of reality. The reality of Brexit in front of our eyes. Scotland’s freedom from unending Tory rule from London may well be unavoidable. The constitutional position is simply unsustainable. It is intolerable to most of the Scottish people. Can they face another five, 10, 15 years of English Tory rule, even with devolution? Probably not, and they might hope for the best from “global Scotland” as it seizes unnamed exciting new opportunities.

This primer covers Scottish sovereignty from the Roman era to the Jacobite revolts, the 2014 referendum and Brexit

The arrangements for the countries of the UK are likely to continue to develop through piecemeal change. This change process is more difficult as a result of the 2016 referendum on the EU. This presents an ongoing threat to the survival of the UK as a unitary state.

There’s a multitude of reasons why people aren’t in favour of independence. We take a look at them including the economy, borders, currency, whether there is real benefit to the union.

Suggests a written Constitution is central not peripheral to making the case for Independence and is the international norm. Proposes developing one provisionally via a Constitutional Conference before next referendum.

With every passing election, Scotland seems to move closer to independence. Investment Monitor explores the obstacles the country would face should it leave the UK.

This  chapter makes use of the lenses of citizenship to explore the interaction between the two dimensions of ‘troubled membership’. It locates legal change in its broader political context and focuses on contested boundaries of polity membership. This explores the content of a possible future Scottish citizenship, and examines the formal legal membership and political citizenship in respect of both the Scottish referendum and the UK’s referendum on EU membership.

The UK is the rare country that acknowledges the possibility of its own division. Great Britain's acquiescence  made Scottish secession possible.  The pathways of Scottish secession have been an insular affair, a function of particularly British law and politics, in which international law played little role. 

The right of the people of Scotland to determine the form of government best suited to their needs has been consistently accepted for decades across the political spectrum, and is powerfully demonstrated by Scotland's recent history.

An influential separatist Scottish nationalism began to take shape only in the 1970s and achieved its present ideological maturity in the course of the 1980s and 1990s. The nationalism that emerged from this testing period of Scottish history was unusual in that it demanded independence not to defend a threatened ancestral culture but as the most effective way to promote the agenda of the left. 

"We target undecided and soft No voters with positive independence messages"

Scottish politics dissected from a left, pro-independence stance. Each week, award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Lesley Riddoch chews over the week’s news with former media lecturer and Dundee United fan, Pat Joyce. If you like intelligent, quirky chat about Scottish society and culture, and Scottish, UK and international politics analysed from a Scottish perspective; this podcast is for you.

This is a largely factual explainer by the Institute for Government of the issues around a referendum and the results of its success.

The White Paper Project is an attempt by Common Weal to explore the methodology, content and structure of a revised White Paper for Scottish independence.