Osbourne says no to currency union.

Ben, not everyone in the Union, or that survey, is English.

‘keeping the pound’ isn’t the same as a formal Currency Union though is it? How neutral is the paper behind the survey?

Ben, not everyone in the Union is English.

Yes, sorry, that was sloppy.

A lot of the anti independence stuff comes down to the implication is that we Scots are too dumb to run our own country.

Many people here don’t care what currency we use, whether we get get into the EU, or whether England will get an unfair share of the dissolved UK’s assets, so long as we can get out of the union and live in a democratic country.

The fishing industry would love an excuse to keep the Spanish fishing boats out of Scottish waters.

Problems? We’ll sort them and put up with whatever it takes.

I think a lot of this is really about English politics. Scotland doesn’t matter politically at Westminster – our 56 MPs don’t have much influence over anything

There was a certain chancellor and pm who screwed up influenced our country quite profoundly.

There was a certain chancellor and pm who screwed up influenced our country quite profoundly.

But Scottish people didn’t put him there.

But Scottish people didn’t put him there

The English certainly didn’t. Must have been the Welsh?

So who on earth voted for Labour in the last-but-one election?

5thElefant – Member

The English certainly didn’t.

Are you having a laugh? Labour took Westminster with 328 english seats in 1997, 323 in 2001! The english vote alone was enough to carry the country in all 3 of Labour’s wins.

So who on earth voted for Labour in the last-but-one election?

There’s a lot of trade between Scotland and England in both directions, so it makes sense for both countries to share a currency.

We trade with lots of other countries but currency union with them isn’t going to happen 😉

The key issue with currency union for the rUK nations is sacrificing sovereignty to be part of a currency union with a separate state.

There is a general election in 2015 and the negotiations will be in full swing post Yes vote. Do you think the rUK parties will get a mandate for a “soft” negotiation?

The Adam Smith Institute has an interesting take on it, saying that Scotland would be better off using the pound without the permission of the rUK, and would have a more stable financial system than the rUK as a result:

http://www.adamsmith.org/news/press-releases/comment-an-independent-scotland-would-better-off-using-the-pound-without

I like the fact Clegg has said the policy is not for monetary union. Given the solidity of the lib dems we can conclude he’ll u turn on this for a modicum of power anywhere.

The US and Canada have lots of bilateral trade, but no currency union. It seems to work fine for them. I think AS should just come out and be honest about it and say that it would be fine for Scotland to have an independent currency.

Keep up Ben, that was covered on page 5!!! 😉

The ASI will be getting some unusual hits and references on this one!

So now it seems that Osborne won’t say no to a currency union after all:

http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/8727-bbc-scotlands-reputation-on-the-line-as-confusion-grows-over-osborne-currency-threat

Is this where we get to talk about blatant BBC bias again?

There’s a really cool website I need to find again, which does a Wikipedia-style tracking of how BBC stories change over time. Because they have a habit of silently editing their articles.

Keep up Ben, that was covered on page 5!!!

I just come on here to rant – you don’t expect me to pay attention do you? 😉

That article is very interesting.. especially in light of the fact I’ve just watched Reporting Scotland where they stated again that they’re all going to be ruling it out again tomorrow!
interesti g that the Treasury had already drawn up some requirement/tests that they would want to apply before negotiating.. which is what Osbourne is actually going to reject!

They are-Underwrite each others banks- fair enough.
Allow taxpayers in one country to subsidise the other-eh?
Reach broad agreements on tax, spending and borrowing levels on both sides of the border- seems reasonable?

😀

Like I said wait and see what Osborne actually says. Meantime he, Cameron Darling et al are treating us like idiots.

A bit like salmond and sturgeon then!!!

Stop trolling thm! (Edit)!!!

Be careful with your punctuation up there^^^^ or someone might think you’re joking !!!

That’s not even close to trolling, I don’t do that. The book of dreams and the unravelling of much of its contents proves that AS&Co have been taking everyone for idiots. But under scrutiny they are being exposed. The SNP are past masters of shutting down dissent – you are not following suit I hope.

Scotsman article saying much the same thing today

Currency sharing was always going to be the Achilles heel of the Yes campaign. So it has proved. It may have been more politic to allow the currency sharing proposal to quietly collapse under the weight of its own contradictions in negotiations with the rUK government. But that would be to allow a referendum vote to proceed on the basis of a collective deception – a plan that few believed would work. And many in the Yes campaign have long suspected that “Plan A” would never work. What, then, would be the point of a referendum based on a premise that many of its proponents know to be false?

Sorry forgot the smiley face!
Fair enough- you have your opinion, I have mine.

And I respect and enjoy yours.

It will be interested to see exactly what GO says tomorrow rather than what the Beeb claim he is going to say.

As I said wait and see what Osborne actually says? The Westminster government says on the one hand it will not pre-negotiate they wont ask the EU for its position on Scotland becoming a member yet they criticise the Scottish government for not having this info which can only be accessed by the member state- the UK, and now they want to set out their position on a currency union which is surely pre-negotiating. The poll I quoted earlier (scotlandseptember18) said that a small per centage of those eligible to vote in the referendum find those issues particularly important anyway so it might well rebound on the no campaign.

The real issue is this THM, take a step to change the country for the better,the white paper is a list of postive changes that Scots could make with hard work and hard times ahead no doubt. Vote no or sit on your hands and you still get the hard work and hard times but the chances of reducing inequality,etc are vastly reduced as the westminster and economic elites are so entrenched .Scotland has for example done all it can to mitigate the effect of the bedroom tax. Can you see that happening in the rest of the UK after a no vote? Or will the Westminster establishment just roll on and on while life gets tougher for ordinary people of all the nations of the UK?

Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

The real issue is this THM, take a step to change the country for the better,the white paper is a list of postive changes that Scots could make with hard work and hard times ahead no doubt. Vote no or sit on your hands and you still get the hard work and hard times but the chances of reducing inequality,etc are vastly reduced as the westminster and economic elites are so entrenched .Scotland has for example done all it can to mitigate the effect of the bedroom tax. Can you see that happening in the rest of the UK after a no vote? Or will the Westminster establishment just roll on and on while life gets tougher for ordinary people of all the nations of the UK?

Not enough ranting, far too much of a sensible post.

SNP now saying they will renege on Scotlands share of the National Debt.
So, the first act of a new Scottish Govt will be to send a message to potential outside investors in Scotland that their money isn’t safe in that Country? Well done.

The above puts in a nutshell the reason I,and a hell of a lot of other people, are voting yes. However it seems to be lost in translation over the border that you can be a nationalist without being anti-english.

SNP now saying they will renege on Scotland’s share of the National Debt.

Perhaps the SNP always planned to do this, and the whole argument about “keeping the pound” has just been a smokescreen to get to this point?

Perhaps the SNP always planned to do this, and the whole argument about “keeping the pound” has just been a smokescreen to get to this point?

Maybe, but it’s not the best message to send to money markets.

So….UKr insist Scotland not “guaranteed” any assets (calm down thm, not money) FAIR… SNP say “Ok then shall we call it quits on our share of the debt.” FOUL. 🙄

Reach broad agreements on tax, spending and borrowing levels on both sides of the border- seems reasonable?

No, it’s a rubbish idea and why Scotland should not go into currency union with rUK. An elected rUK government shouldn’t consent to a foreign power limiting their ability to implement the domestic policies they were designed to execute, and neither should an elected Scottish government.

States are in competition for investment, population and money.

SNP now saying they will renege on Scotlands share of the National Debt.
So, the first act of a new Scottish Govt will be to send a message to potential outside investors in Scotland that their money isn’t safe in that Country? Well done.

Defaulting on a debt is very different to refusing to pay a share of an existing debt. Outside investors may well be very interested in a country with no debts and massive natural and human resources.

So Osborne is going to make his speech in Edinburgh. That sort of bullying hectoring arrogance is going to do the Yes campaign no end of good.

Listening to R4 this morning and I am now even more confused.

So if the UK will not let Scotland have a currency union and they do not fulfill the requirements for the Euro yet, then what are their options?

Link to the GBP anyway until they are in a position to enter the Euro?
Why would that be so bad? Sounds the most pragmatic to me.

Or have their own Scottish Pound?

THM can you expand on the implications of the above?

That sort of bullying hectoring arrogance

How is stating a political position either bullying, hectoring or arrogant?

Given that, apparently, Balls will also be stating the same position, will you also accuse him of bullying, hectoring and arrogance?