What if Scotland gets independence?

• SNP govt has already set the date of March 24, 2016 for a division that would cut the United Kingdom's landmass by a third
• Scotland would be the first independent state created in Europe since the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia

London: With polls showing Scotland's upcoming independence referendum too close to call, the rest of the United Kingdom is starting to consider seriously the implications of a "Yes" victory.

A pro-independence vote would be a global sensation but would change little in the immediate term, except perhaps boost calls for British Prime Minister David Cameron to resign. But the vote would sound the starting gun for complex talks between the British and Scottish governments on separating two deeply interlinked economies and political systems with three centuries of shared history, finally leading to full independence. The Scottish National Party (SNP) government has already set the date of March 24, 2016 -- the 309th anniversary of the Acts of Union between England and Scotland -- for a division that would cut the United Kingdom's landmass by a third and its population by around eight percent. Scotland would be the first independent state created in Europe since the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia and the world's newest country since South Sudan in 2011.

Much of what happens between a "Yes" vote on Thursday and 2016 is uncertain, as is the question of whether Scotland could continue to be a member of the European Union as an independent entity, or whether it would have to start again and re-apply.The Scottish government has said the first step taken "soon after a vote for independence" would be to seek a formal transfer of powers to the Scottish parliament to establish "the constitutional platform for an independent Scotland". It said it would also start pre-independence talks with the EU "to settle the terms of an independent Scotland's continuing membership.