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8 Claims From The Scottish Independence Debate, Fact-Checked

Both Alistair Darling and Alex Salmond got a grilling during the first Scottish referendum debate. But we're still not much clearer about what an independent Scotland would look like.

Alistair Darling and Alex Salmond went head-to-head on Scottish independence in a televised debate on Tuesday night.

1. Darling claimed Scotland has higher public spending per head than the rest of the UK.

2. Salmond said Scotland also pays more in taxes per person than the rest of UK.

"For each one of the last 33 years Scotland has paid in more in tax per person than the average for the UK," the first minister claimed.

If you minus Scotland's total tax receipts generated per person since 1980 from the average for the UK, they've contributed a surplus of £222 billion in today's prices (again, counting Scotland's geographical share of North Sea oil and gas).

But, on the basis of a population share, or just looking at the taxes it generates on dry land, Scotland generates fewer taxes per person than the UK average.

3. Darling said that North Sea revenue is declining, and it is notoriously volatile.

4. Salmond questioned the Office for Budget Responsibility's estimates.

5. Darling said Scottish government oil and gas estimates are optimistic.

6. Darling claimed Scotland’s population is ageing faster than the rest of the UK...

7. ...but people in Scotland don’t live as long.

8. And as for the small matter of which currency will be used...