GIDEON: INEPTITUDE PERSONIFIED

Why does anyone care what this idiot says? Look at the mess he's made.

In  case any of you have missed James's hilarious post here, I'd suggest you read it, and you might also like to look at the Channel Four poll to which he refers.

As he says, the questions border on insulting, and it's clear from the wording that we are supposed to answer in the negative. Unfortunately for them, that seems not to have worked.

I don't really understand economics, but, as I see it the pound is a currency that both Scotland and England use. It doesn't belong to either country, nor does it belong to Northern Ireland, Wales, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, The Isle of man  or the Falkland Islands. It belongs to and in the world as an internationally recognized and tradable currency.

The UK government cannot stop us using it, no more than the Japanese government can stop us using the Yen. 

Not a fat lot of difference between Labour and the Tories then

What the Scottish government proposed was that we would continue to use it, with the backing of the rest of its users ...after all we helped pay for the printing of the notes, the minting of the coins and the very building that houses its offices and vaults. The gold stored therein (or what's left of it) is partly ours and our taxes help to pay for the salary of the staff including the  massive salaries and pensions of its top management and ex management.

In return for this the Scottish government was happy to work with the Bank of England (which should have been called the Bank of Britain), continuing to pay for its services, as presumably the government of Jersey does, and to take its share per capita, of the horrendous debt that it has built up. 

Fair's fair. It we share the benefits of being part of the sterling zone; it wouldn't be unreasonable to share the liabilities. 

It would work for England and the other countries in the sterling zone too, because Scotland's healthy exports would act in its favour.

Smart boy has a degree in history*

But smart boy Gideon, backed, somewhat publicly and indiscreetly, by the civil servant who heads the Treasury has said "no".

So Scotland has no alternative but to use the pound unofficially. This is perfectly legal. As I said earlier we could use any internationally traded currency; the Icelandic Krona, the Swiss Franc, or the Hungarian Forint... but it makes most sense to use the pound because it is what we already use; there would be no need to split the assets of the Bank of England, and there would be no exchange rates to consider between traders on either side of the border.

I see that as a relatively short term thing, because I can see no reason why Scotland should not have its own currency. 

However, using the currency unofficially absolves Scotland absolutely of any obligation to shoulder the trillion pound plus debt that sterling has built up. Just as we have to take the bad with the good, of we are refused the good, we are not likely to take the bad. But no, Gideon doesn't like that. Like all posh spoilt children he wants to have his cake and eat it.

Typical spoilt rich kid

Mystifyingly they tell us that if we do uses the pound and refuse to shoulder the debt, that they may well block independence, regardless of the vote, including our entry into the EU (how grown up is that?), and in the same breath tell us that we would be obliged to use the Euro, which is supposed to scare the living daylights out of people.

Dealing with the privileged, the elite of English society is really like working with spoilt children. 

They want it all their own way.

If this is designed to frighten the horses, then Gideon would know, that a) we don;t believe him and b) if he actually carries out the threat it only makes people more determined.

Scots don;t like being bossed about by posh Tories. And I include Balls in the second part of that. Posh he may not be, aren't but a Tory he surely is!

*After graduating in with a 2:1 in Modern History, Osborne did a few part-time jobs including as a data entry clerk, typing the details of recently deceased into an NHS computer database. He also worked for a week at Selfridges mainly re-folding towels. Osborne originally intended to pursue a career in journalism. He failed to gain a place on the Times trainee scheme, and instead did freelance work for The Telegraph. Then he got a job as a researcher at the Conservative Party. So he clearly is just the man for the job, erm... of folding the towels.