Britain calculating cost of split with Scotland

The government is calculating the cost of Scotland splitting from Britain to reinforce its case against nationalist demands for independence, a cabinet minister said on Monday.

Ministers in every government department are examining the implications of a Scottish separation on areas such as defence, welfare payments, and broadcasting, Scottish Secretary Michael Moore told Reuters in an interview.

"(There is) a sharpened focus on what is at stake if ... Scotland should go off on its own," he said, speaking on the sidelines of his Liberal Democrat party's conference in Birmingham.

The exercise would be completed before the end of the year, he added.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority in the devolved Scottish parliament in May and pledged to hold a referendum on independence within five years, some 300 years after Scotland and England were united.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader and first minister of Scotland, is delaying the referendum until late in his five-year term so as to turn the surge in his party's popularity into stronger support for breaking away from Britain.

But keeping his political powder dry means Salmond has also given little detail about what an independent Scotland would look like.

As a result, the nationalist party was refusing to engage in a proper debate, Moore said.

"We're doing our work to make sure that we can make a good positive case about the United Kingdom and challenge the SNP on the costs and risks attached to separation," he said. more