LONDON — There’ll be no going back if Scotland votes for independence from the United Kingdom on Sept. 18. ap polls showing that may happen have prompted investors to sell off the British pound. If a knockout blow is dealt to Scotland’s 307-year union with England, that selling could accelerate as the U.K. plunges into a constitutional crisis.
The fate of the pound, one of the most tangible links of the union, will be front and center in any separation proceedings.
Nationalists, led by First Minister Alex Salmond, hope Scotland will still use the pound through a currency union with what’s left of the U.K.— Wales, Northern Ireland and England. The main British political parties say that won’t happen.
Enmeshed are other complexities, such as the division of the U.K.’s $2.1 trillion-or-so debt mountain and whether Scotland would be part of the European Union. The Associated Press
