Could Scottish Independence Set Off a Cascade of Secession?: There's also a growing political clash. Scots are said to be thrifty, but they also tend to be somewhat collectivist. A lot of Scots, fed up with Tory policies imposed from London, imagine becoming an independent, Scandinavian sort of social democracy.
They have chafed under rule from London for centuries, but particularly resent what's happened to Britain since Mrs. Thatcher's government. And with a lot of North Sea oil, not to mention single malt whiskey, they are richer than their English cousins. Who needs England?
A form of home rule introduced under the Blair government, giving Scotland its own regional parliament in 1999 for the first time since 1707, backfired on Downing Street. Far from slaking the Scottish appetite for full independence, it only made secession seem more thinkable and gave the Scottish Nationalists, the governing party in Edinburgh, more credibility.