Going to be provocative here and say “losing Scotland” with 8.2% of Britain’s population and less than 7% of U.K. GDP would have less of an impact on Britain’s weight in the world than leaving the EU. What Osborne is talking about here is heavily psychological.

England was a European great power before the act of Union by virtue of London, commerce and population size. It would continue to be larger than Italy without Scotland and its merits to the Americans or otherwise judged by wether it chooses to keep heavily spending on security.

Scottish independence would put a major stress on rebasing the army, relocating the nuclear deterrent and the state’s ability to focus. But I wouldn’t over exaggerate how important the U.K. is with or without Scotland.

What might change is elites, like Osborne, might give up on foreign policy and high security investments thinking England was no longer bound to the traditions of first the Empire then the Union state.