Scottish Independence Referendum - 18 September 2014

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

If I was English, I would be a bit happy to see Scotland leaving the UK. Calm down dear Scots. No problem with you, ethnically speaking. Its just that you guys always provide Westminster with Labour members. Politically it'd be an advantage for the Tory.

Long-term, perhaps, but short-term, no.
Cameron is sure to lose in 2015 if Scotland leaves UK. Voters will blame him for that.

It won't get that far.  If Scotland votes to secede, Cameron will be forced out of office within a week.

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

It is interesting to me how much traction this is getting considering just how loyal Scotland has historically been to England. Scotland has always contributed disproportionate troops in British wars, including the American Revolution.

As well as the factors already stated: at the time of the American Revolution, being in the British Army was the only way of legally wearing the traditional Highland dress.

Scottish banknotes don't tend to be recognised in English shops, BTW.

Depends where you are.  Places in England where lots of Scots go, like Carlisle or Blackpool, don't have a problem with Scottish notes.  You can get away with them at most places in Greater Manchester.  London and the south, on the other hand, doesn't like Scottish notes at all.

(Back in the mists of time, one reason why the twelve-sided brass 3d coin was introduced is that southerners didn't like the tiny silver 3d, although it was popular in Scotland.)

[Chancellor of the Duchy of Little Lever and Darcy Lever]

So, does "expected declaration time" mean that each council area will be announced all at once, like the constituencies in Parliamentary elections?

Yes.

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Some of these councils cover far-flung areas (Highland alone is bigger than some EU countries) and communications can be quite poor.

There was one general election where the result from one of the island constituencies was severely delayed because the helicopter which had been chartered to bring the ballot boxes in from some of the outlying islands had to be used instead to ferry a heavily pregnant woman to hospital in Inverness.

The Edinburgh counting team faces none of these difficulties, but is still notoriously slow.