Krugman to Scotland: Be very afraid.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Not as much flexibility as a US state has

They have autonomy in some areas (which has, for instance, allowed them to have free tuition in Scottish universities (also free for students from other EU countries, but not for English students, due to a weird way EU rules work), and they have the ability to vary the basic income tax rate from the 20% UK rate up or down by up to 3% - but they've never used that ability. But, for instance, when the 'bedroom tax' charge on people in public housing with unused bedrooms came in, it was across the UK.

When the referendum was first proposed, one option was to give voters 3 choices - "status quo", full independence, or "devo max" - maximum devolution. The Scottish nationalists and the UK government negotiated a question of just "independence or not", which has the advantage of meaning one answer will get a majority, which the 3 questions almost certainly wouldn't have done. But some feel that 'middle way' would have been satisfying to many people. The late surge by the 'yes' campaign has brought further concessions, which is making 'no' look more like 'devo max' anyway - see http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/08/scottish-independence-gordon-brown-tax-welfare-powers-timetable-labour and http://news.sky.com/story/1332188/scotland-devo-max-deal-a-win-win-for-salmond