‘There is an empty hole where Scottish contingency planning should be’As a teacher of British history I sometimes wonder what a bright PhD student 50 years hence will make of what is happening now, especially of those interlocking events and consequent developments to which we are paying insufficient attention. The Scottish question is an example. Horizon-scanning is perilous, but let’s think of a few possibilities.Scenario 1: September 2014. The Scottish people vote to separate from the United Kingdom. Negotiations begin on the ingredients and mechanics of severance. The SNP administration in Edinburgh hopes this will be completed by March 2016. I suspect it will take longer but it would certainly be done before 2020.May 2015. At the general election, due unde