The referendum campaign devoted much attention to how and whether an independent Scotland would negotiate to stay in, re-join, or even leave, the European Union. But the bigger question by far is what sort of…

It’s a commonplace of Scottish political discourse to compare our nation of 5.2m to independent near-neighbours such as the Nordics – Denmark, say, with its 5.6m – or, more recently, the Baltics, with their 6.2m…