Let's have an English referendum

Would a newly independent Scotland automatically be an EU member? No, says Barroso. No, says Spain's foreign minister, obviously wanting to ensure that the path for a newly independent Catalonia or Basque Country would be as rocky as possible.

Madrid may have been happy to tweak England's tail in the past by encouraging Scottish independence aspirations, but keeping Spain together is obviously more important to them.

And oops! a new EU member would have to agree to adopt the euro, an unappetising prospect, as the SNP have spotted, with their now "definitive" policy that an independent Scotland would keep sterling, and hence have interest rates set in London.

It's not looking all that inviting out there for a newly independent Scotland.

So let Scotland inherit the UK's EU membership. Let's have an English referendum - on whether it should be England that leaves the UK. Then Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can subsidise each other and keep the UK's membership of the EU. England will have to decide whether to re-apply for EU membership with a commitment to join the euro ... and of course it won't.

With one bound we'll be free.

Those who still believe Britain’s future lies with the European Union are out of date; our economic future is global or it is nothing, remarks Allister Heath. So let's go for it.