ACCORDING TO DARLING AND OSBORNE, THE TERRIBLE TWINS, THIS WAS OUT OF THE QUESTION

SO WHAT HAVE WE HERE?

Shortly before she was arrested for bribing government officials and police; shortly before she was picked up for hacking into people's phones from pop stars to royalty, from politicians to reality "stars"; shortly before she was done for using a dead girls phone and giving false hope to the parents that their child was alive, David Cameron's friend and neighbour was offered support and assistance from Tony Blair. There are some things you support your friends through. There are somethings that you do not. I wonder what's in it for him?

Well another day, another Tory on the fiddle. What worries me is that bitch got a tut tut for claiming £90,000 she wasn't entitled to, but a student who stole two bottles of water from a looted shop got 6 months in prison. All in it together, Big Society.  We've not been so divided for 70 years.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Oh look. Sterling that is not English.

Who'd have thought it, eh...? All these countries that use the pound sterling, with the queens head on it because they are associated with the crown, although not with England, or Wales or Ulster or Scotland.

Surely must me some mistake.

At the risk of being a tad on the boring side... Oh look!
No, I'm joking. These are not official.
No wonder, no one much lives there.

The man who raided people's pensions won't need to worry much for himself.
Quite apart form the massive ex prime minister pension he gets, plus a fund to run an office, plus security, he clearly gets rather well paid for his speeches. Not sure why, because he's a boring old git that got more or less everything wrong all the time he was in office.

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.

WHY NOT SCOTLAND?

These countries have all been allowed to be part of the Sterling Zone.

Can I ask Mr Osborne... do we smell, or something?

Gideon George Oliver Osborne  or GO as we like to call him

Federation of South Arabia,
Sudan,
Australia,
The Bahamas,
Bahrain,
Bangladesh,
Barbados, Lesotho Basutoland,
Bermuda,
Botswana,
British Antarctic Territory,
Guyana,
British Guiana
Belize British Honduras,
British Indian Ocean Territory,
Solomon Islands,
British Somaliland Protectorate (left in 1964),
British Virgin Islands, Brunei,

Burma (left in 1966),
Cayman Islands,Dominion of Ceylon Ceylon (Sri Lanka),
Cyprus,
Egypt (left in 1947),
Falkland Islands,
Fiji,
The Gambia,
Ghana,
Gibraltar,
Tuvalu Gilbert and Ellice Islands (Kiribati and Tuvalu),
Hong Kong,
Iceland,
Republic of Ireland (until 1971),
India (including Sikkim),
Iraq (left in 1959)
Jamaica,
Jordan,
Kenya,
Kuwait
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis Leeward Islands (comprising Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, and Saint Kitts (Saint Christopher and Nevis))
Libya (expelled in 1971)
Malawi,
Malaysia,
Maldives Maldive Islands,

Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

Malta,
Mauritius,
Oman Muscat and Oman (Sultanate of Oman),
Nauru ,
New Zealand (including, Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau Islands),
Nigeria,
Israel British Mandate for Palestine (required to withdraw in 1948),
Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea,
Pitcairn Islands,
Qatar,
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) (expelled in 1965),
Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha,
Seychelles,
Sierra Leone,
Singapore ,
South Africa,
Namibia South West Africa (Namibia),
Swaziland,
Tanganyika,
Tonga ,
Trinidad and Tobago,
Oman Trucial Oman (United Arab Emirates),
Turks and Caicos Islands,
Uganda,
The Channel Islands,

So tell us, what have they all got that we don't have?

The Isle of Man,
Samoa,
Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Windward Islands (comprising Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines),
Zambia,
Zanzibar,

WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH THEY TALK

The dependence parties, have been accusing the SNP of ‘constitutional hokey-cokey’ claiming that the SNP has  changed its positions since the 2011 election on a number of independence issues – the Queen, currency, financial regulation,  Britishness and a shed load of other stuff.

This is just another example of how no-one can trust a word the dependence parties say. Their claims are untrue.

Obviously no-one has bothered to look at SNP policy or Scottish Government proposals, all announced before the historic 2011 election result.

What does this misrepresentation say about the credibility and honesty of other things the dependence parties are telling people? With the help of the SNP records, I debunk a few of these issues here. I shall continue with more items in the next days and weeks.

THE QUEEN/MONARCHY

Retaining the Monarchy has been SNP policy since the party’s foundation in 1934. This position was also clearly laid out in the Scottish Government’s White Paper “Your Scotland, Your Voice” (published in 2009).

“The current constitutional arrangements, with the Queen as Head of State of an independent Scotland, … would provide a robust and tested constitutional framework for Scotland in the event of the transition to independence.” (“Your Scotland, Your Voice”, page 130)

The Queen is already head of state of 16 Commonwealth Realms, and also head of a Commonwealth of 54 independent states - a quarter of the earth's independent countries. I'm a republican, and I dread the idea of Charles Rothsay as the Kind of Scots, but the majority of Scots seem to want the monarchy, and if so that's OK with me.  That's democracy!

STERLING

Using sterling and therefore sharing the independent Bank of England has been SNP policy since 2005 if they had cared to read ‘Raising the Standard” (published in November 2005):

“The currency shall continue to be sterling…”

And ‘Your Scotland, Your Voice” (November 2009) said:

“Scotland would continue to operate within the sterling system...” (page 31)

I would have prefered to have a Scottish Dollar or Crown or whatever, independent of the BoE, but it has been suggested, by economists, that if Scotland, with it's oil, left the sterling zone, it would cause a run on the pound, which would be devastating to the English economy. Contrary to what some non thinkers suppose, we do not wish England to suffer, indeed as one of our major trading partners, as well as allies and friends, we need their economy in a good shape, as we need France's, Norway's, Iceland's, etc...

BRITISHNESS

We cannot NOT be British; our country is on the British Isles. Just like Sweden cannot NOT be Scandinavian; it is a part of the land mass of Scandinavia. Just as Portugal cannot avoid being Iberian because it lies on the Iberian peninsula.  No one has seriously suggested carting Scotland off to the Mediterranean or the Baltic . Indeed in an article in the Herald from as far back as 1974  the SNP’s then Vice-Chairman Douglas Crawford wrote:

“For the record the SNP seeks self-government under the Crown, with a Customs and passport union with England and the other countries of the British Isles, and an association of States of the British Isles to look after the mutual interests of all the countries.”