Never has a British general election caused so much concern in Europe. And never has the UK appeared closer to the EU exit door.

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…