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Tuesday 23 April 2013

A partnership of unequals

So Alec Salmond wants to use the British currency in an independent Scotland.

Go on, nothing's stopping you.  You could use the dollar instead, or even the euro, but if you go for sterling, don't expect us to take Scottish economics into account when setting interest rates.  No, the rest-of-the-UK politicians will set interest rates to set their poltical cycle, not yours.  If you want Scottish interests to be aken into account, then you will have to join a formal currency union, where by definition, if it is a seterling union, Scotland will be the junior partner.  If you think it should be a partnership of equals, look at Germany in the eurozone and think again.

So faced with the reality that the UK would only allow Scotland into a currency union on the UK's terms, Scotland accuses the Westminster of being provocative, and in the next breath, threatens to walk away from its share of the National Debt.  Actually we shouldn't be asking Scotland to assume part of our debts, because that isn't fair on the lenders.  They should be raising that amount of money on their own account and buying pack 10% of the National Debt from the market.

Walk away from that and we will take their oilfields if we haven't already sold them to the Norwegians.

1 comment:

Demetrius said...

OK so RBS Salmond wants to walk away from debt. So England stops the West Coast Main Line at Preston with a local stopping service to Carlisle. Also stops the East Coast Main Line at Newcastle with a stopping service to Berwick if it stays English or Alnmouth if not. And then installs tolls on the M6 at Carlisle and the A1. It might just be worth it.