The destruction of the Labour party as a credible opposition is down to nobody but the labour party themselves.
You might want to look at a
general election map, about 40 seats north of the border are labour, 1 seat conservative.
Take away Scotland and labour has no hope at all of a majority government.
From a political point of view, this would have an impact on England.
In the short term it would lead to conservative dominance, but I can't see this lasting, at some point splits in the party may happen, or more votes are spread out to other parties (lib dems, ukip, etc).
Of course we could afford it. Scotland has 8.4% of the UK population, yet contributes 9.6% of UK treasury income...
I believe the objections come more from the idea that the Scottish government spends more than it would be able to take in tax. But unlike the UK government, it would not have a strong pound and the ability to borrow (our deficit is a problem, but debt and borrowing are still manageable). My guess however is that a proper devalued Scottish coin, would somewhat reduce the need to borrow (pay workers less, as their money is worth more, the pound inflates living costs). However the SNP seem to be quite the Euro fans, so there is a risk Scotland will join the Euro, then you would be ****ed.
I am in the camp that Scotland leaving would be rather neutral to England, every cost or benefit argument discussion I hear ends up with a list of monies going back and forth.
Possibly the biggest risk Scotland would face is the possible loss of shipbuilding contracts from UK defence, but then if they go for a devalued Scottish currency, this may make them more competitive with eastern Europe (where they have lost a lot of their industry to).
