Dr. Martin Mansergh:

A very brief point was raised on the subject of Scotland by one of the questioners. I have a Scottish wife but I have also been involved in discussions with the Scottish Government in the late 1990s to early 2000s. I am full of sympathy but quite sceptical as to whether Scotland will in fact go independent. There are all sorts of problems like what sort of currency they have and use. They have the same prejudice against the euro as one would find south of the border in England. My personal advice and instinct would be to not to draw Scotland into one's calculations and in any case, you do not hear quite so much about the Ulster Scots these days as you did 20 years ago. The ethos of Nicola Sturgeon's Scotland does not have much appeal for unionists. The other thing is, Mr. Peter Robinson said and I suspect this is the realpolitiksituation in the short term, that if Scotland did vote for independence, they would maintain the Union, or unionists would want to maintain the Union with England without making too many bones about that. Sometimes sentimental factors have to be overridden.