If Scotland Walks Away
On his flying vista to Edinburgh the other day George Osborne, the chancellor, made the following statement in connection with the independence referendum:
"If Scotland walks away from the UK, it walks away from the pound."
Now the logic of the Chancellor's position is that the pound belongs to what remains of the UK - if Scotland votes to become an independent country.
Yet if this is true, then if Scotland does decide to walk away (to use the Chancellor's language) - why don't we also walk away for the UK's debt mountain which has been piled up by the last two Westminster Governments?
So, I would say that you can't have it both ways George - you can't have your cake and eat it at the same time because that would be politically dishonest and unfair.
And that goes for George's new chums as well - Labour's Ed Balls and the Lib Dems Danny Alexander.
Because I would have thought that if the Scottish people vote Yes in the referendum, then Labour and the Lib Dems would be all in favour of Scotland maintaining close ties and good working relations with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Nasty Neighbours (14 February 2014)
I was astonished at the comments of the Chancellor, George Osborne, yesterday who came all the way to Scotland to tell us that if we Scots vote for independence on 18 September 2014, then we can kiss goodbye to any kind of monetary union with what remains of the UK.
Now how's that for grown up behaviour?
Just imagine a business partnership that was coming to an end after a long period or a marriage, especially if there were children involved - the message appears to be 'We hate you and we're going to do our best to make life as difficult as possible in future'.
To make matters worse, Labour and Lib Dem spokespeople quickly appeared to reinforce the Conservative message that Scotland would be punished for having the cheek to decide that it would be better off as an independent country.
What puzzles me is that these are the same people who keep telling us that we would be Better Together because of our mutual ties and history which make the UK greater than the sum of its parts.
Yet if we vote for independence, then overnight we are transformed into some kind of enemy as opposed to a friendly neighbour which simply wants the right to govern itself and make the big decisions when it comes to Scotland's economy and future direction.
I can't see it I have to say and I'm disappointed that the Westminster based political parties have combined to issue such an ugly threat which I suspect will cause a backlash amongst people like me - who don't like being pushed around.
The 'nice cop' in the Conservative Party, Prime Minister David Cameron, has played things well up until now by recognising Scotland's right to vote on its future, by agreeing to hold a referendum and by stating publicly that he will respect the outcome.
Unlike his counterpart in Spain, for example, where the conservative Popular Party prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has blocked an independence referendum in Catalonia - and said that the Catalans basically need to become a bit more Spanish.
Now that's a red rag to a bull, if you'll pardon the pun, and so is this little gang comprising George Osborne (Tories), Ed Balls (Labour) and Danny Alexander (Lib Dems) who speak the language of Better Together while threatening that the whole business will get nasty if things don't go their way.
Me? I think this is a ridiculous way to behave and it certainly makes me less inclined to believe that politicians at Westminster have Scotland's best interests at heart.
