Hi DU! I'll be voting in the Scottish Independence Referendum on Thursday...

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Though the current autonomy that Scotland has is probably slightly less than a US state

An American state has more freedom to choose how it finances its part of government - sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes and so on. Scotland can vary the income tax rate slightly from the overall UK one (but has not yet done so), but that's it, really. A state has a national guard - Scotland has no such thing. The differences in laws between states is more than that between Scotland and England (and I think Scotland is more restricted on which areas it could change laws, if it wanted, though I'd have to look into that).

English regions don't have fixed boundaries - things get organised in all kinds of ways, and there's nothing approaching the political autonomy that US states have (county and city councils are even restricted by central government in the levels of property taxes they can levy). Here's a diagram of the different ways England gets divided up for different purposes:


http://alasdairgunn.deviantart.com/art/Tortured-geography-481305396?q=gallery%3Aalasdairgunn&qo=1

But Scotland has a long-standing cultural 'border', with England, that states don't have. That, I think, makes independence seem more likely than a state splitting off. Hawaii is probably the closest in spirit (I've never been there, but I understand the population mix is very 'Pacific', and it had a history as an independent entity).