A very British divorce

chris bowlby considers the logistics of a separation between Scotland and the rest of the UK

Imagine a marital divorce, but between two nations. The Union between Scotland and England is three centuries old and support for Scottish independence is still under 25 per cent in the opinion polls. But the Union is clearly changing and no-one is sure where it's heading.

Following devolution, the Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond now heads what he calls the 'Scottish government' in Edinburgh. And the SNP hopes to hold in due course a referendum in which Scottish voters will be asked to approve negotiations to end the Union.

But if that happens, it will only be the beginning of the story. As I witnessed when reporting Czechoslovakia's break-up in the 1990s, the dissolution of a common state, like a divorce, involves haggling over what was common property, as well as great personal drama. If it were to happen under the current

Negotiating with Alex Salmond on behalf of the rest of the UK would be the Prime Minister - who is a Scottish MP

Westminster government, there would be the irony that the negotiators sitting opposite Alex Salmond (left) on behalf of the rest of the UK would logically be the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Defence - all of whom are currently Scottish MPs.

And what would be on the agenda? As in a divorce, there would have to be an inventory and division of all the UK's assets, with Scotland allocated a share of eight or nine per cent in many cases, according to its proportion of the UK population. Scottish nationalists would expect to get up to 95 per cent of British North Sea oil reserves and much of the gas, which they see as powering post-independence prosperity. But there is much more than that.

The Czechs and Slovaks haggled over everything from aircraft in the state airline to the buildings and contents of every Czechoslovakian embassy abroad. (Gordon Brown may have inadvertently helped prepare the way here when, as Chancellor, he published a UK National Asset Register