Photograph: Gordon Terris

became uncritical cheerleaders for RBS and HBOS before the crash, and there’s no guarantee a future Scottish government wouldn’t end up in the pockets of big business.

But that’s what being independent means. It involves difficult decisions. To paraphrase Karl Marx, Scots would be making their own history but not under circumstances of their own choosing. My view is that for any number of reasons, an independent Scotland would immediately find itself working with England on a range of common problems from transport links and immigration policy, to currency and banking regulation.

Indeed, an independent Scotland might not look that different to the way it does now. The main change would be that most decisions on tax and spending would be taken in Holyrood. Scotland already has an elected parliament with primary legislative powers, and that is 80% of what being independent means. The rest is up to us.