Scotland Bill

I am most grateful to my noble friend for that intervention. I look at this from a Scottish perspective and I should have given more emphasis to that. He is absolutely right. This will have huge implications for people in England as well as Scotland. I find it very difficult to see how we could keep our role and influence in the United Nations, for example, if the United Kingdom was broken up. I think our country would be seen to be greatly diminished internationally. I do not quite know how it would work, given that the Scottish Nationalists are opposed to our membership of NATO. Most countries are queuing up to try to get in to NATO, but this lot want to leave NATO. What is the position of our armed services, whose dedication fills everyone in the country with admiration? Of course, my noble friend Lord Deben is more enthusiastic about the European Union than I have been and he is right from a sedentary position to ask, ““What about the EU?””. Would Scotland as an independent nation be able to join the EU? If it was not able to join the EU, what would the consequences be? If it was able to join, presumably it would not benefit from the opt-out which we enjoy on the euro. Therefore, what would happen in terms of the implications for our currency, for cross-border movement and the rest? These issues are hugely important. This is not a dodgy dossier exercise or about getting government departments to make political statements one way or the other. It is simply about listing the issues which would arise so that those involved, on whichever side of the debate, can address the issues instead of being involved in a kind of Brigadoon debate which is characterised north of the border.