September 18 sees the Scottish electorate voting for or against independence. Strangely, natives living in the rest of the UK will have no say, yet current residents from other lands will be entitled to vote.

The outcome, if it is a “yes” vote, will have an effect on the rest of the UK, and particularly in the West Midlands, for the Scottish government will no doubt start playing around with legislation designed to encourage companies to manufacture goods north of the border to bolster a fragile economy.

At the moment, Scotland is still enjoying the benefits from both oil and gas industries.

However, this current boom will only last for about another 30 years at present reckoning, unless legislation is enacted to help pay for the costs of developing the more difficult sources of both gas and oil. Modern techniques only extract about 70 per cent of any given well, the balance being much too costly to harvest.

If, therefore, Alex Salmond offers sweeteners to encourage companies in Scotland to produce goods at home rather than importing, it will be British businesses that will initially suffer most.

This will be especially so if Scotland is forced to adopt the euro. Uniquely, the three main British political parties have made it very clear that they are united in not allowing Scotland to use the pound. It would become much more expensive for Scotland to buy goods manufactured elsewhere within the British Isles due to the differences in fluctuating currency values.

I do not wish to get involved in the complex subject of the creation of the Republic of Ireland in 1922, but purely from a fiscal point of view, I do not believe that they have made as much commercial progress during the last 92 years as the British Isles in its present form.

Strangely, in all dealings with my Scottish customers, I have yet to find one that has stated that they will be voting “yes”.

In fact my Orkney and Shetland friends tell me that they would rather opt for a unilateral declaration of independence for the islands!

I therefore hope the answer will be “no”.

* Russell Lockock is chairman of Company Chairman of AE Harris & Co