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@William.
Scotland is a naturally socialist country, and this does make it a much nicer place to live. The Scottish parliament has resisted many of the moves towards privatisation and cuts to benefits made by new lab and the tories. Scottish doctors have been able to resist the dismantling of many of their services. University is still free. Care for the elderly is state funded.
There is a lot in the argument for having government close to the people. But other things have made me realise that this is as much about Salmond as it is about Scotland. After he got the Scottish parliament established and had been first minister for a couple of years he got bored, and went back to Westminster? He loved, and was brilliant at, the political scrapping in London, and in Edinburgh there is no opposition to him of any sort,.There are no debates in the scottish parliament, or within his party, he does things, his party follows, Labour look ineffectual (all the best Scottish labour polticians are in Westminster) and there are no Tories.
The Trump golf course is one example of Salmond imposing his personal will to support a n illegal policy that he thought would look good for him, and declare Scotland 'open for business' - but his ego was flattered by a rich American paying him attention, and the result is a physical blight to the country and far lower than projected economic benefit.
The currency, EU membership, national debt etc. aren't necessarily negative things, but they are big uncertainties, no-one can know what will happen, and how they are handled will decide whether an independent Scotland succeeds or fails.
I'm a Jacobite at heart so my emotions say Yes, and the idea of a small, nice country listening to its people and with no global military presence is very appealing. But I worry that a) it's just too late in terms of national psyche, and b) the world (and England) wouldn't allow Scotland to be a great small country if it became independent.
The English forced Scotland to sign the Act of Union in 1707 by emposing a trade embargo, they could easily employ similar tactics again. Already e.g. the Spanish president of the European Commission is belittling the very idea, because of fears of Basque separatism. If England and the EU wanted they could cause an independent Scotland to fail economically. If I was still living there I don't know how I would vote, but it wouldn't be 'no' because that would be an implicit vote for Cameron. I'm watching with great interest.