Interestingly, the Scots want IN to the EU – so expect another push for separation but probably a skilled deflection or call to be united will fix it. Expect horse trading. Reality is that Scotland don’t have enough clout to stand up to Europe (Hence the wish to join them rather than be totally independent). The reality and the dream would be very far apart. Just the European paperwork would drown Scotland. They are far better off being nimble and building their economy than wasting a fortune on paperwork.
I was in UK when Britain joined and it wasn’t popular then with 7 countries and hasn’t yielded much benefit except visa free travel (Pretty minor thing as you only holiday annually). Of course visa and border free has now bitten Europe with refugees.
I think some countries like Greece should never have been allowed to join. Rich and poor rarely share the same bed comfortably and some of those countries brought only debt to the table whilst others brought cash and assets.
With the expectation that Europe will be dragged down to the third world level by refugees within 10-15 years, exiting is good, but is like self-employment after years of a Government job. Britain needs to be nimble and get into Asia etc. not because they are out of Europe but because they need to be independent of Europe before the refugees sink that ship.
Interestingly, they face the same issue as New Zealand – an island far from their markets, so the new UK standard of living will be challenged with Asian markets but they have a widespread market already with Europe, Scandinavia etc.
They will need to stop buying toys and focus on becoming an exporter of high value goods asap.
Said another way : Europe without Britain is a nightmare. It’s all of the headache and regulation of an overbearing central government but without the push for free trade – which was frankly the only thing that made it worth doing to begin with.