The UK is an extraordinary crucible of ideas, learning and creativity. We can celebrate difference and speak in harmony with many voices. We are enriched by Yorkshire’s writers and artists; by Northern Ireland’s poets; by the powerful contributions that post-war immigration has brought us. No part of the UK has made a greater contribution to the whole than Scotland – Adam Smith and James Boswell; JM Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle; Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson; Muriel Spark and Carol Ann Duffy; Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith; Ludovic Kennedy and Andrew Marr; Billy Connolly and David Tennant; Armando Iannucci and Irvine Welsh.

One reason for Britain’s exceptional creative and intellectual vitality is our genius for founding institutions that channel and foster our national talent. None of these bodies is more effective than the BBC. And tellingly, the BBC was founded and critically shaped by a young Scot of vision, a can-do engineer, a curmudgeonly son of the manse, John Reith. And it was that bold Scot who bequeathed the BBC an enduring conviction, a stubborn commitment to excellence and a lasting set of values.

There would be many consequences if Scotland were to become independent but let us be clear what they would be for the BBC, and for broadcasting in Scotland and in the rest of the UK.

The BBC, like other national institutions, would lose 10% of its income. The recent new obligations placed on the BBC – to fund World Service, S4C and other activities from the licence fee – will in short order take a further 15% out of the pot used for funding television, radio and online services. So in the space of just a few years, if Scotland became independent the BBC as we know it would effectively lose a quarter of its funding. Fundamental changes to BBC services would be unavoidable.

The BBC buys programmes of distinction from other countries – most notably recently, from Scandinavia. So even with its diminished revenues, the BBC would no doubt buy some programmes from an independent Scotland. But as with other countries, only programmes in the “outstanding” category will be purchased. The bold assertion in the Scottish government’s white paper that a new Scottish public service broadcaster will work with the BBC in a programme-swapping joint venture is make-believe.

A smaller BBC would no doubt make some programmes in and about Scotland, as it does in other countries, but this would be exceptional – unlike now, when as a matter of policy, a proportionate slice of its budget is spent in Scotland on programming for the whole UK. So if Scotland were independent, I am sorry to say, it would no longer be much reflected on TV screens and airwaves in the rest of the UK.

Scotland’s new publicly funded broadcaster, the SBS, would have about a 10th of the BBC’s current budget. As in other countries that have a population of around 5 million, the SBS will tailor its programmes and services to its modest means.

Like other broadcasters, I expect the SBS will want to acquire programmes from the BBC, not least those loved by Scottish audiences. The BBC is, thankfully, independent of government so whatever is asserted wishfully in the white paper, the BBC will have no alternative but to act in the interests of its licence payers and to seek the best possible commercial terms for the sale of its programmes in Scotland, not least because of the financial impoverishment it will just have suffered. And, of course, there may be commercial broadcasters in a new Scotland willing to pay more for the BBC’s most successful programmes than an impecunious SBS.

Finally, as for the availability in Scotland of the BBC’s continuing services, there will be some transmission spillover at the border, and BBC channels and services will certainly be accessible more widely in Scotland, but encrypted and available only on commercial terms. One way or another, after independence, Scottish viewers would have to pay to receive BBC services.

Those who will vote for independence identify and expect many gains. But many of the advantages that the most creative and inspiring talents in Scotland have enjoyed for 300 years – of making a massive impact on a big stage to global acclaim – will be lost.