The EU referendum: a no-win situation for Salmond.

Wee Eck's speech in Hawick this week had the theme of the EU, and of course mention was made of the UK "sleepwalking out of the EU" following David Cameron's proposed referendum in 2017. But what if Salmond's scaremongering actually came to pass? If the UK left the EU, where would that leave a newly-separate Scotland in the process of joining the EU? Surely that would throw a sizeable spanner in the works of separation?

One European think-tank head certainly thinks it would at least scupper a Sterling monetary union; in his words “It is difficult to envisage such an arrangement, as a clash between two sets of rules could occur, creating legal uncertainty.”

So, to summarise... if the UK stays in the EU, then there is no need for separation for Scotland to also stay part of it; but if it doesn't, then the very feasibility of separation is called into question.