Salmond in the shit?

[David Johnson]

Not the best of weeks for the SNP.

First the main political parties in Westminster told the SNP that they would not be willing to join a currency union with Scotland if there was a yes vote for independence.

That seems perfectly understandable. Why would the remainder of the UK want to join a currency union with an independent country setting its own taxes, spending etc etc? This is why Britain thankfully never joined the euro.
Why on earth does Salmond want an independent Scotland to have its interest rates set by the Bank of ENGLAND?

Then today, the President of the EU Commission stated that an independent Scotland would have to apply to join the EU and would have to get the agreement of all the other member states including Spain, who are not going to want to give positive independence statements for the Catalonian independence movement by supporting Scotland's bid. Barroso also said that Scotland would have to join the euro which would mean very close political and economic ties with the EU in order to avoid the EU disasters of the last few years.

Is Salmond up the Clyde without a paddle or am I missing something?

[william]

Its over...... all done.

[fatmick]

Too tired to reply in detail right now. Have a read at this in the meantime and I will be back in a day or two.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/02/ ... the-pound/

[RoddersUK]

One of the problems is according to my Glaswegian friend is that there are a lot
of stupid people in Scotland who think Salmond can walk on water and deliver
them to a land overflowing with milk and honey. On the radio last week after
the announcement that Scotland could not stay with Sterling some people were
saying that they wouldn't be bullied by the Chancellor or the Bank of England and
they would now vote for independence. It beggars belief that people can be so stupid as to
decide which way to vote because of that. My friend is right, there are a lot of stupid people in Scotland.

[Arginald Valleywater]

Hahahahahahahahaha. Sad to see the country of many of my ancestors thinking it is going to be all Rob Roy and Jimmy Shand and free Irn Bru all round. Salmond is a dangerous man. I would love to know who is pulling his strings behind the scenes. I live 8 miles from the border and several of my colleagues live in Scotland. They think independence will be a disaster with different rates of tax, more NI contributions and compulsory sporran wearing.
I am banking on it being a heavy defeat for Salmond and then seeing how he squirms and grovels to keep his job....defeat means the SNP is dead. Cloutie Dumpling anyone?

[David Johnson]

Had a look at your link, ta.

There is a lot of confusion about the currency and Scottish independence. What Salmond and the SNP are trying to do is to argue that a Yes vote will change very little with lots of advantages and no disadvantages e.g. keep the Queen, keep the pound, the Bank of England as the lender of last resort, right to set all their own tax and spend etc etc.


If Salmond wants to keep the pound as their currency they can do and peg it to the British pound if need be. However, the problem with having a "currency union" with Scotland which is a different thing again, is that it is the same mechanism as the euro countries have in which you have widely varying economies using the same currency. Then when some of them e.g. Spain, Greece go down a completely different spend route, the EU central bank has to bail them out at huge cost to those countries who have not gone down the spend, spend, spend route. Tax and spending policies would more than likely have to be co-ordinated otherwise the risk of out-of-control spending in one country could affect economic stability and inflation, destabilising the currency. This is why the EU is moving to ever closer political and economic union.

This is the reason why Britain never joined the euro and why they don't want a currency union with Scotland. So although Scotland could carry on with the pound sterling and print their own notes etc etc. they have been told that there will not be a currency union.

Secondly, you could argue that this is irrelevant if Scotland wants to be part of the EU. Barroso has clearly stated that Scotland as a completely new country would have to apply to join the EU and would have to use the euro if they wanted to join like all new applicants.

No amount of Salmond bullshit about the British main political parties "bullying" Scotland and Barroso, the EU Commissioner being "preposterous" will disguise these issues.

[Gentleman]

He may loose the independence vote but all he needs to do is drop the independence part of the party name.

I don't see labour being the major power in Scotland by default anymore especially now super Dave is turning the rest of the uk into estates for him and his mates complete with attendant serfs.

[max_tranmere]

Cameron described Salmond today as a "man without a plan". First he assumes
the Scots can keep the pound, and is told by all three parties in Westminster that
they won't be able to, then the EU tell him it will be a complex and long procedure
for them to be able to join and there's no certainty they'll be able to. I don't think
Salmond has thought this through properly.

They will be more independent than they intended, namely they'll be no
currency union, the Bank of England will not be there to bail them out, and
they won't be in the EU for a while, possibly ages, if at all. They will have
total independence when what Salmond really wanted was partial independence
(keep the pound, keep the monarch, their reserves held at the Bank of England
in London, etc), even though he called it full independence.

I think the Scots will feel a certain amount of fear seeing all this unravelling
and will realise that voting "yes" in September will be a step into the
unknown to quite a frightening degree. All this will increase the vote for the
"no" camp. More things will come out as the months go on, thus firming-up
the "no" position even more.

Here is an interesting discussion where Alex Salmond is interviewed by
Jeremy Paxman. Salmond is asked, among other things, how they'll get their
share of the gold from London to Scotland: "Will it be in some sort of armoured
train?" lol. Have a watch, it's quite interesting:

[Arginald Valleywater]

Salmond has enough problems with that Sturgeon woman......she has eyes on McSalmond's seat in Hollywood sorry Holyrood....

[Cuntybollocks]

Well speaking as a proud scot I will say this. I would be devastated Is Scotland became independent.

Salmond is a dangerous and deluded man, so desperate for votes he is letting 16 year olds have a say in it!!.

I don't know anyone up here who thinks it's a good idea.