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this article  Coalition: Scotland cannot keep pound and leave
debt  Alex Salmond would be unable to carry through his threat
to walk away from Scotland's share of UK national debt after
independence, according to senior Coalition Government sources.
Scots would remain liable for the  full amount if the
Westminster ­Government refused to write off the debt, they
warned.  The sources also said that would leave the money owed
hanging over the new country, adversely affecting its credit
rating.  Conservative insiders also made the most explicit
threat yet that reneging on the debt could see an independent
Scotland lose out on billions of pounds worth of joint assets,
such as embassies or fighter jets.  Suggesting the two could not
be viewed separately, a source said: "If you won't pay the
mortgage, why should you get to keep the house?"  The warnings
raise the stakes in Edinburgh and London's war over the future
of both the pound and the national debt