As Westminster and Holyrood slug it out over the terms, timing and questions for a referendum on Scottish independence, businesses both north and south of the border face an uncertain future.

If Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, gets his way and holds a referendum in the autumn of 2014, 700 years on from the Battle of Bannockburn, then business leaders will face more than two years of uncertainty about whether Scotland will remain in the United Kingdom, perhaps with much greater devolved powers, or become an independent state.