With polls ahead of Scotland's independence referendum now showing the two sides neck and neck, Britain is starting to seriously consider the implications of a "Yes" victory. It would however sound the starting gun for complex talks between the British and Scottish governments on separating two deeply interlinked economies and political systems after three centuries of shared history, leading up to full independence. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has already set the date of March 24, 2016 -- the 309th anniversary of the Acts of Union between England and Scotland -- for a formal division that would cut the United Kingdom's landmass by a third. Scotland would be the first independent state created in Europe since the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia and experts say the separation is most comparable to the peacefully negotiated one of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965. Source: AFP