February 6, 2025
The UK’s national debt at present is approximately £2.4 Trillion.
If Scotland could emerge from Scottish independence with no debt, then so too could every other part of Europe that saw reneging on national debt as a way to solve its financial difficulties.
If Scotland could emerge from Scottish independence with no debt, then so too could every other part of Europe that saw reneging on national debt as a way to solve its financial difficulties.

The UK’s national debt at present is approximately £2.4 Trillion. But there is a simple way that we could owe nobody anything. If Britain declared independence from itself then we would owe zero pounds. If seceding from oneself is illegitimate, Britain could secede from Cornwall and decide that Cornwall is the inheritor of all Britain’s debt. Cornish independence would mean that each citizen of Cornwall (Kernow) owed nearly 5 million pounds, but that would be their problem not ours. Alternatively, if we took pity on Cornwall, we could decide that it was in fact Scotland that deserved all Britain’s debt. After all the SNP keeps demanding independence. What if Britain seceded from Scotland?  Each Scot would then owe £500,000 pounds.

If it were legitimate for Scotland to secede from the UK and not owe any debt, it would equally be legitimate for everyone else to secede from Scotland and not owe any debt. What makes the shared British debt belong to people in Yorkshire, but not belong to people in Aberdeenshire? The debt after all was taken out jointly by the UK and was used for the benefit of all of us. So why should a big bit of Britain be left with all of it and a small bit of Britain be left with none rather than the other way round. Scottish independence could leave Scotland as the successor state to UK assets and debts. The rest of Britain could owe nothing.

There is however a word for this. It is default.

Some Scottish nationalists apparently seriously suppose that after Scottish banks were bailed out in 2008 and after the Treasury has paid our wages and kept our firms from going bust during Covid, and after asking for the furlough scheme to be continued for as long as the Scottish economy needs it, that after all this we could declare independence and walk away owing zero pounds. But if this were legitimate why doesn’t everybody do it?

[Interesting Read]

See Also:

(1) Brexiteers rejoice as Britain on track to leave EU with no delay – ‘We did it!’

(2) Merkel admits Brexit will go down to the wire – talks will now go into November

(3) Brexit hammer blow: How departure of British MEPs has put Brussels on ‘death row’

(4) Nicola Sturgeon beaten to the punch? How Brexit could spark Welsh independence row

(5) Brexit breakthrough: Farmers reassured by new protection in post-Brexit talks