Will Scotland Leave the UK?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Chris

Danny Alexander criticises the SNP's "John McEnroe defence" on currency:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...itics-26477209

Sounds unequivocal to me. Not only that, it sounds like true 'independence' but the SNP don't seem to find that a very palatable option. They'd prefer quasi-independence with the fallback position that the rest of the UK would carry the can if/when Salmond's delusions turn out to be as realistic as his 'arc of prosperity' was.

[Ignitionnet]

I'm loving the unsubtle threat that Scotland would refuse to take on their share of the UK debt if they weren't given currency union.

Asked what would happen if the Scottish government "lost" such a negotiation, he added: "If the UK government sustains its current line of argument, the line of argument pursued by George Osborne, then what would happen is the UK would be assuming all of the responsibility for the debt of the UK.

"An independent Scotland wouldn't be saddled with the proportionate share of debt that we have freely accepted that we would have to take on.

"The UK government would be walking in to assuming all of the debt, and that is another compelling reason why the circumstances that I've set out, of the rest of the UK agreeing to a currency union zone with an independent Scotland, is a strong and credible proposition."

I'm sure international money markets and institutions would look most sympathetically on a state that engages in that kind of behaviour.

As noted here it's unlikely and would be an extremely bad idea.

Anyone with a brain cell should also be very concerned at the ease with which the SNP conflates "the Bank of England" and "the Pound". None of them appear to understand what a fiat currency is, which is troubling as they profess to want to run a country of their own.

I would have thought an understanding of the basics was pretty key to that ambition.

[Derek]

**More than 100,000 copies of the independence White Paper have been ordered, at a cost of £800,000.

Official figures show 114,441 copies of Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland have been requested, 57,708 in digital format and 56,733 hard copies.

Well it's cheaper than Andrex.

http://bit.ly/OgTinl

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Derek

Well it's cheaper than Andrex.

http://bit.ly/OgTinl

It is equally interesting?

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Osem

It is equally interesting?

Are we talking before or after the Andrex has been used?

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Osem

It is equally interesting?

I actually tried to read it, after a few minutes of it being painfully clear it wasn't a white paper but instead a fantasists election manifesto I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Derek

I actually tried to read it, after a few minutes of it being painfully clear it wasn't a white paper but instead a fantasists election manifesto I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding.

I don't suppose that came as much of a surprise to you.

Originally Posted by Derek

I actually tried to read it, after a few minutes of it being painfully clear it wasn't a white paper but instead a fantasists election manifesto I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding.

It's an epic fantasy full of epic plot holes. Such as the projected size of Scotland's deficit, which The Fat One would have you believe would, in the worst case, be no bigger than £5.5 billion, but which the Treasury has today estimated to be more than £9 billion. They have run the numbers and come to broadly the same conclusion as the IFS and Citi Group.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-scenario.html

Given Alec's professed love of financial experts, will he now accept his figures are hopelessly optimistic?

No, I didn't think he would either. Never mind, it's probably more fun watching them squirm anyway.

It's George Soros' turn to bully Alex Salmond today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...mpossible.html

One of the world's most successful businessmen has said Alex Salmond's proposal for an independent Scotland to share the pound is impossible.

George Soros also warned that starting a new currency would be "potentially dangerous" as speculators would sense weakness and launch attacks.

My favorite of the CyberNats' delusions is their optimistic interpretation of the polling. It's eerily reminiscent of the arguments the Republicans were using back in 2012 to convince themselves that Romney was about to win the election. They are in for a nasty shock come September.

I've believed for some time that the Cybernats' biggest problem is that they colonised the internet so effectively in the years prior to the referendum being called that they have ended up believing their own propaganda. They have spent so many years reading overwhelmingly nationalist messages on blogs and beneath news stories at Scotsman.com that they have lost sight of the fact that it is largely their own, small, highly motivated group of fellow travellers that is responsible for it.

Plus, the Yes campaign is doing a lot of doorstepping around soft targets like Glasgow's east end council estates and sending its footsoldiers out with scripts to read and leading questions to ask. It's hardly surprising that they're getting overwhelmingly positive feedback, that's exactly what the technique is designed to produce. But all it's producing is temporary noise which allows the gullible to believe there really is going to be a two-thirds Yes vote in September.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Chris

It's George Soros' turn to bully Alex Salmond today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...mpossible.html

Salmond's really not much of a "Braveheart" is he. His droning and whining is more reminiscent of a perforated bagpipe...

[nashville]

He will still come back with some more lies and then fall flat on his face. There is no chance of a yes vote

Sir David Ormand, former director of GCHQ, bullies Alex Salmond over his plans for McI5.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...elligence.html