Is independence the priority right now?

With the future of Scotland potentially at stake with the upcoming referendum over the break-up of the United Kingdom, who would get the oil in the North Sea?

95% of the oil the UK drills is on Scottish water, but it would be unlikely that Scotland would get it keep all of the revenues as UK money has been spent on machinery, equipment and research.

Plus when the oil was discovered it was as the UK and not just as Scotland.

But surely we need a concrete agreement of what would happen as this seems to be the SNP's main argument for a successful financial future.

There are also many entanglements to be sorted, not least Defence. Would/could we afford a Scottish army, navy and air force? Would we have military service for everyone as do many of the Scandinavian countries often cited by First Minister Alec Salmond as the financial role model for an independent Scotland?

We would keep the Queen as head of state (baffling that after 300 years of wanting independence it would not be a clean break...why not become a republic?) and keep the pound as the currency, though up until the Euro crisis John Swinney the SNP Finance Minister was keen on joining the Euro.

And would Scotland take our share of the UK debt? Scotland would not have a central bank which can bail out nations when in severe trouble by printing more money.

Then we have the thorny issue of Shetland and Orkney. My Uncle lives in Shetland and I know only too well that Shetlanders do not see themselves as Scottish but rather as Shetlanders and have more in common with the Faroes and Oslo rather than Edinburgh.

And as a marketing graduate I was humoured by the fact that the question favoured by Mr Salmond was: "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country". Any first year business student who studies Market Research would tell you that it is indeed a leading question and quite frankly laughable.

I am patriotic to be Scottish and British, but I do think before any such referendum takes place, Scots deserve the details to be planned out before us because this is the most serious vote we will ever face in our lives.

I would also urge the Parliament at Holyrood to actually postpone independence talk and concentrate on the economy and the futures of our young people, many of whom will have no jobs and possibly few places on college, university and training courses. Added to that my own belifef that Scotland needs massive, MASSIVE investment in our transport system to bring us up to date with the rest of Europe there we have two or three issues I believe the politicians should be focusing on. It would be nice to have more motorways, better bus services, high speed trains linking our major cities, and airports that can handle passenger volume and indeed have excellent transport links to the cities (i.e. the GARL).

Politicians should remember their main job is to improve the everyday lives of the people. To raise living standards. I believe both the SNP and the Coalition in Westminster should take heed or they may not be in power when the next election comes along.