Nasty Neighbours

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.