I work round the corner at similar business and have seen the tv crews all day so this has had a fair bit of exposure, interesting.
Standard Life will go wherever will make them money.
It's the uncertainty at the moment that they don't like, but if everything comes up smelling of roses you can guarentee they'll stay put.
This.
They also don't like the idea of leaving the EU. What do you think they'd do in the event of a possible UKIP surge in 2015 pushing an in out referendum in 2017? They could possibly be better off in Scotland with a propsed revision of corporation tax and a desire to stay in the EU.
It's sensible posturing from a business looking to quite rightly protect themselves and as they have stated they have made no plans to move anything they are simple making precautionary moves. They are quite happy where they are. Bear in mind the massive cost and risks that a move also brings for a company that size.
It's a giant game of poker now and I feel on this one the Westminster parties (who are running the no vote remember) have the strong hand by not backing down on the currency union yet. This will make them dig their heels in no matter what the sensible approach is. The irish had to fight to get independence but they had a currency union for 50 years. But it'd be nuts to have one with Scotland right after a completely democratic seperation? Bearing in mind our contribution to the very institutions we're being denied access to.
There's a proposal to rework the Barnet formula to lower the Scottish budget by 4.6 Billion that's 15% if we remain in the UK. Just ponder that a second no voters. We already contribute more than we take out. Ponder that renewables funding powers for the Scottish parliament were removed by a lords amendment only a couple of months ago. There's no rosey utopia on the other side of a No vote. There's no extra powers, there's nothing promised. They don't have anything telling you what will come from a no vote for a reason.
Ponder a westminster second chamber with unelected individuals taking £300 a day for turning up for an hour then they get a say on "welfare reform" and can strip powers from a democratically elected parliament trying to push the massive energy making potential of Scotland. Look at the real figures for benefit fraud and then compare them to tax avoidance. Which is getting more airtime?
Consider £80billion being spend on HS2 link to lower the journey from London to Birmingham by 20 fcuking minutes and then consider what difference a £50 million reopening of the east coast line would make to an area like Leven/Methil. Consider that the massive transport budget in billion that this government has announcement has no work whatsoever happening in Scotland.
Consider the McCrone report if you think anyone is giving you an honest opinion. Consider the UK government using uk money and civil servants to lobby 34 foreign nations about the independence debate despite clear campaign funding limits and a "It's a debate for the Scottish people" stance everytime they are asked to a proper square go or meet anyone in Scotland to answer questions?
Wouldn't you like to have the chance for us to decide what is best for us and our money?
Compare Dubai and Easterhouse and consider Scotland has produced more oil in the past 30 years than Dubai and Abu Dhabi combined.
Few points Scott 
1) The Irish never had a currency union with the UK, they had the punt which was pegged to the Pound, although I think the Pound may have been accepted there for a period of time, so it made sense.
2) We won't be denied access to any institutions, we would be a different country, hence different (or replicated) institutions
3)The whole "we get less out than we put in" thing has been spun multiple times, and TBH, I'm not really sure its true. If so, why so worried about the Barnett formula if it's a disadvantage? You could put it another way:
4) A No vote isn't simply accepting the status quo, it's about disagreeing with the current proposals being put forward as "the way forward", which, IMO, is a badly constructed, fact-lite but sound-bite heavy, proposal / document that poses more questions than it answers.
5) As someone who works in renewables, they primary issues has been then lcak of coherent thinking and planning on a UK level. Now I'm not sure if a shift in decision making powers will provide a benefit, but it's clear this "joined-up thinking" needs to be done on a basis larger than that of Scotland, especially for the offshore stuff.
6) Tax avoidance is just as prevalent up here as elsewhere, or do you think this is a London-only thing?
7) Scotland has it's own transport budget does it not? Geographically we are at a disadvantage (whether cross-border or internally), independance or not isn't going to change that. I'd worry that if funding gaps appear they would be more difficult to plug with a much smaller economy.
8) I haven't seen any evidence of external lobbying of other governments, please share.
9) Dubai is not a good comparison - it is an extremely low tax economy, built on the sweat of cheap imported labour, with massive inequality and an almost non-existant political system. Spread thei oil money out, democratically, and things would look very different. Check out the effects on Dubai and other petro-economies after the oil price crash of ~2008. It's no surprise they are turning it into a middle-eastern Disneyland for adults, as there's little else once the dino-juice drops off...
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