Should Scotland be an independent country?

More inclined to heed Tariq Ali tbh

theguardian.com/commentisfree­/2014/mar/13/scots-undo-union-of-rogues-­independence-1707-honour

"The notion that an independent Scotland will be parochial is risible. The "internationalism" of New Labour and its coalition lookalikes essentially means subordinating the entire British state to the interests of the US. They have made Britain a vassal state: on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on the gathering of intelligence. An independent Scotland could be far more internationalist and would benefit a great deal from links to both Scandinavia and states in other continents"

I do not see why a) Scotland could not be internationalist now and develop links with Scandinavia regardless of the state of the union, and b) why Ali finds it 'risible' that an independent Scotland would be parochial. Presumably relations with England are going to fall under the remit of foreign policy, and the founding act of that foreign policy will be to tell England, Wales and Northern Ireland "fuck off, we're going to cosy up to our far northern neighbours instead." That's pretty parochial.
Also, while we are on the subject. Given that New Labour was architected by two Scots, so I'm not really sure how bringing up their foreign policy backs up the argument that independent Scottish foreign policy would be different. But whatever. Ali may be right; he's just bad at arguing.