which lists tempting items such as over £3m worth of antiques, silver and rugs in the British embassy in Paris or bases in the Falklands valued at over £180m.)

Debts would have to be divided up as well as assets. Scotland would take a share of the UK National Debt including National Savings - which would need careful handling to avoid savers panicking. Liability for state pensions is also a sensitive area, especially for Scots who may have migrated south in search of work and wish to return to Scotland later.

In some areas the SNP has been stressing a more pragmatic line. It has decided not to have its own currency on independence, staying initially with Sterling, asserting its independence through fiscal policy instead.

The monarchy is another area in which the SNP has been trying to reassure cautious Scots. It now proposes that the Queen would be head of state of an independent Scotland but wearing a Scottish crown and linked in a monarchical union to what was the UK. There would need to be special arrangements for questions such as the royal succession.