More from Robert Peston. He might not last at the BBC much longer 
Analysis: Robert Peston, BBC business editor
Some of the fuss and furore about whether prices in an independent Scotland would be higher than in the rest of the UK is bonkers.
When retailers - food and non food - say they might have to push up their prices if Scotland were to introduce higher taxes or rates or if it were to change employment and planning laws, this is simply to remind Scots why they are voting for or against independence.
The whole point of Scotland becoming a separate nation, for its proponents, is to give Scots the ability to make different choices about the nature of the society they inhabit from what prevails in the rest of the UK.
Inevitably those choices would have an impact on businesses. And frequently they would have an impact on the level of prices.
So talking about the emergence of inevitable price differentials between Scotland and an independent UK is to say something stunningly obvious and uninteresting.
For example we don't expect prices to be the same in UK and France, because the UK and France make different choices about the structure of their respective economies, and these choices have an impact on the productivity and pricing policies of their respective businesses.
Full article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-29161335
And since we're cherry-picking (from the same article)
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But of course in exercising that new ability to choose, there would be an impact on - among things - the costs for business. And of course there are a whole bunch of things an independent Scotland could choose to do, from encouraging investment to improving infrastructure, which could boost the efficiency of business and lead to reduced prices.
But that is not the whole story. There are some unavoidable financial costs of becoming independent which the Scots cannot dismiss as scaremongering by a Westminster patriarchy. They should see these costs, perhaps, not as an overwhelming reason to vote against independence, but as simply the tariff or entry fee for autonomous statehood.
So what are these costs?
Well the first one is short term. Which is that investment always falls in a time of uncertainty.
The uncertainties about the nature of an independent Scotland are material for business, especially the uncertainty about what currency it would use and the timing of its membership of the European Union.
And unless and until the economic and monetary structure of a newly independent Scottish nation were conspicuous and set, there would be less investment - and therefore a temporary dip in growth.
Strikingly, the former boss of Sainsbury's, Justin King, told me last night in a BBC interview that the UK's supermarket groups have already disproportionately cut their investment in new stores in Scotland - because of the uncertainties brought about by the referendum vote.
It is very unclear how long the uncertainty tariff would be levied on Scotland. But the important point is that it would wash out over a period of years, as the country's new governance arrangements bedded down.
But there are two other costs of a more permanent nature, and a serious contingent cost.
One permanent cost is that Scotland is a smaller market than the whole UK.
It is almost too trite to mention, but there are benefits to business in operating in as frictionless and large a market as possible - the more consumers who can be reached cheaply and easily by a business, the more efficient it is.
And as soon as a market fragments into separate markets, with different regulations, different taxes and so on, the more that costs for business increase.
For the avoidance of doubt, a fragmentation of the UK's single market would push up costs on both sides of the Scottish border. But they are likely to rise relatively more north of the border, because the new market created there would be smaller."
(Sorry, got a bit mental on theole bold button..)
Great point made below about the nonsense surrounding RBS statement yesterday
This is from BBC Radio Scotland this morning.
