Osbourne says no to currency union.

It will be the Scottish govt and there is an election before hand. I also think it is reasonable to assume they will use a bi partisan approach [ representatives from many parties] – if not just so he can also lay the blame at others doors if the negotiation dont go as well as planned.

TBH i would be surprised if it was just them involved in such an important issue but , surprisingly, yet again we just dont know.

It seems reasonable to assume it was done on principle that 16 is old enough.

Not reasonable imo, for the reasons I gave. Most other countries in the world seem to agree.

EDIT : Useful contribution by you there aracer, it adds hugely to the debate about Scottish independence/currency union and is in keeping with the comment you made yesterday. You must be proud of your witty comments eh ?

In the meantime those bullying, nasty Europeans are throwing the pensions spanner in the works again, still whats the odd pension fund deficit between friends….

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb5a58ee-b370-11e3-bc21-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz2wuR8LJVU

They will be demanding that AS uses up-to-date oil figures next – oh, wait a minute, that’s our (the UK) lot!

Yes we know that in a perfect world balanced budgets are ideal but that in a real world deficits are required during recessions.

My final word on Keynes (for the moment), in Keynes’ world, this situation can’t exist anyway, the point Skidelsky makes at about 6:00. Still, we probably don’t know what we are talking about and you could be much more informed on the matter!

Not just an SNP thing, lowering the voting age.

Labour plan to lower voting age to 16

It is of course fine to reject the SNP’s vision of an independent Scotland, but whose vision are you using instead ?

Or are you seriously claiming that you have no idea what path an independent Scotland will follow ?

Do you know what path the UK will follow over the next 10, 50 or 100 years? Of course I have no idea what path an independent Scotland will follow, but I think Scots are smart enough, sensible enough, and resourceful enough to find out for ourselves.

My vision is simple – I want my daughter to grow up in a country of hope, not fear.

Still, we probably don’t know what we are talking about and you could be much more informed on the matter!

“We” ? 🙄

I suppose Paul Krugman doesn’t know what he’s talking about either eh ?

In essence, Professor Krugman’s essay made the classic Keynesian case in favor of the federal government spending more, taxing less, and accepting the resulting bigger deficit.

Krugman, Keynes, And The Economy

My vision is simple – I want my daughter to grow up in a country of hope, not fear.

Get this man the Nobel peace prize…or maybe a Miss World garland.

I thought there were no heroes anymore, but you’ve proved me wrong.

Thanks for that revelation – I’d assumed that given currency union isn’t an option they’d choose to have no currency at all.

The question is which of the options is plan B – something Sir BS of eck hasn’t answered, whatever you might claim.

However I realised that you can apply game theory to this. Clearly plan A is a currency union, Fact. Therefore the primary objective of the game must be to get a currency union. Let’s look at the possible options for plan B and the strategy given each of them. I think we can ignore joining the Euro for now, as it’s not going to happen immediately (and if it did it would come under the same strategy as one of the other options anyway). Which leaves two possibilities (I’m also ignoring unlaterally adopting the Euro, unilaterally adopting the US dollar, or a Scottish currency linked to either of those). Either a completely independent Scottish currency, or a Scottish currency tied to the pound/adopting the pound without a currency union (both the latter options are identical economically).

Now if plan B was to have a completely independent Scottish currency, then the correct strategy under game theory would be to announce that – remembering that plan A is a currency union. To do so would force the hand of rUK, as clearly there would be a cost involved in not having a currency union. However if plan B is to adopt the pound without a currency union/have a Scottish currency tied to the pound, then the correct strategy is clearly to keep quiet and claim that there is no plan B, as there is actually no disadvantage to plan B as far as rUK is concerned so there is no incentive at all for them to agree to a currency union.

I leave determining what plan B actually is as an exercise for the reader…

{and I thought you were leaving it ernie 😉 , but at least quote Krugman rather than someone else showing his misunderstanding]

Wasnt A = €
B= £ currency union
C= independent use of £
D= err, we are working on it…..but in the meantime, we WILL use B so there, or perhaps C, or…….

My vision is simple – I want my daughter to grow up in a country of hope, not fear.

😕
The only fear is that being created by the minority that want to jump into the abyss of independence.
Fear is based on uncertainty, and you admit to being uncertain.
Strange logic Mr Cooper.

I thought you were leaving it ernie

Yeah your arrogant and patronizing comment “you could be much more informed on the matter!” managed to get a reaction. I had forgotten just how patronizing you can be.

Fear is based on uncertainty, and you admit to being uncertain.

Yet I am not fearful, I am hopeful.

Sometimes, certainty is worse than uncertainty. There’s the certainty that all the Westminster political parties are pretty much identical. There’s the certainty that they all want to spend £100bn on weapons of mass destruction instead of on helping people. There’s the certainty that politics is making society more fearful – of immigrants, of the poor, of young people. There’s the certainty that my vote doesn’t matter in this first-past-the-post system. There’s the certainty that none of them really want to help people – can you imagine any modern political party creating the NHS instead of dismantling it?

I’m tired of being cynical about politics.

[Well, I know how you hate people making incorrect statements on here and were quite dogmatic (“This is completely at odds with Keynes”). Anyway, lets leave it now, shall we since this is more about Scotland than JMK and anyone can make their own mind up who is correct, especially from the FT link (3:30, 4:11 and 6:00 mins) ! And he does know what he is talking about when it comes to Keynes, even if “we” dont.

Oh, and sbob – still waiting for links to these forums where there’s a consensus I’m a mentalist 😀

Really?
I thought you didn’t “care what random people on unnamed Internet forums think about me”.

I’m not going to link to the two I mentioned, but you were also mentioned on Pistonheads if you really do now fancy a look.

Heck, if we have a good relationship after independence, we may even cheer for the England cricket team (except when they’re playing Australia).

Shouldn’t you be supporting the Scottish national cricket team?

Aracer. You are asking Salmond to campaign for the 2015/6 election there. Why should salmond tbh the currency question isn’t for him to tell us its for us to tell which ever government forms the first Parliament.

The options are there salmond doesn’t have a mandate to tie us into any currency. He has a mandate to hold a referendum.

Or are we getting told that the day after a yes vote the pound no longer becomes valid in scotland? 😆

The options are there salmond doesn’t have a mandate to tie us into any currency. He has a mandate to hold a referendum.

If that was all, then would could have saved a lot of time, money, trees and hot air in the process*. Of course, the (ie AS’s and yS,s) mandate stretches beyond simply holding a referendum. There has to be (still to be determined) cause in the first place otherwise it becomes little more than a vanity project.

*although kids will have appreciated the new fairy tales to read either way

Blimey, those pistonheads folk leave us miles behind on this topic. Old “edinburger” seems a laugh though!! Impressive C&P and quoting skills in display!!

konabunny – Member
…Shouldn’t you be supporting the Scottish national cricket team?

Ye gods! Do we have one?

I thought all real men in Scotland played Shinty, not those softy southern sports. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cricket racquet in a Scottish sports store.

Cricket as a student in Scotland was a somewhat dispiriting affair, especially if you are a fast bowler. Much better to stick to the royal and ancient game IMO!

epicyclo – Member

Ye gods! Do we have one?

My cousin used to play for the national team. Apparently every single time he told people that, for his entire career, they said essentially “Ye gods! Do we have one?”. Must be very fulfilling that.

Good to see that the Yes vote know a lot about their own country 😯

So to help you out

Scottish Cricket Fixture list

We have a national kabaddi team too, I don’t think either is a key referendum consideration tbh.

dragon – Member
Good to see that the Yes vote know a lot about their own country
So to help you out
Scottish Cricket Fixture list

Very kind of you to provide the info, but there’s no way I’d waste good riding time going to watch cricket, or most ball sports for that matter.

Blood sports like shinty definitely though. 🙂

This one seems to have slipped under the radar (sorry if I’ve missed it), It hasn’t been splashed all over ‘wings’ for some reason!

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_EuropeanandExternalRelationsCommittee/Inquiries/Letter_from_Viviane_Reding_Vice_President_of_the_European_Commission_dated_20_March_2014__pdf.pdf

OK, the content is nothing that Barusso hasn’t already said but I would have thought that a direct response to the Scottish government regarding EU entry would have been important information for the voters, you would think AS has something to hide.

OPEC head not keen on an independent Scotland either.

As you say Irelanst there’s nothing new there, and I see the UK government has still not formally approached the EU commission for their position on the accession issue so the relevant information from the deciding body is still not available to voters.

“What we need is the human expression. On July 19 this year I’m hoping that 100,000 people will gather along that old, foreign, Roman wall – English, Welsh, Irish, Scots, holding hands, linking arms across that border,” he told MPs.

😀

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/scottish-independence-split-blamed-on-romans-1-3352328

Another poll out today btw, article in the Scotsman. Both side traditional in the proclamations of momentum blah blah blah etc etc etc

I think the scotsman should be made to change it’s name to be honest! 😆

Do you honestly think that the EU will issue any statement that would contradict those repeatedly made by the president, the vice president and its own defining treaties?

How can;

“When part of the territory of a Member State ceases to be a part of that State, e.g. because that territory becomes an independent state, the treaties will no longer apply to that territory. In other words, a new independent region would, by the fact of its independence, become a third country with respect to the Union and the Treaties would, from the day of its independence, not apply anymore on its territory.”

Be spun into the White papers version of events?

We have a national kabaddi team too,

I thought that was the religion that Madonna was touting a few years ago.

gordimhor – Member

As you say Irelanst there’s nothing new there, and I see the UK government has still not formally approached the EU commission for their position on the accession issue so the relevant information from the deciding body is still not available to voters.

What exactly do you want to know?
As far as I can see, all the information is out there.

The world’s first international football match was played at the West of Scotland cricket ground!

It was a no-score draw, a bit like this discussion 😀

It was a no-score draw, a bit like this discussion

🙄

This is like trying to reason with the terminally religious.

If you need an analogy to understand it, a No vote will be nil-nil, a Yes vote will be UK nil – Scotland minus 1.

Blamed on Romans? It’s the Saxons’ fault. If they hadn’t created England we’d all be British, and we’d be a federated state of Silures, Picti, Iceni and the rest.

This is like trying to reason with the terminally religious.

If you need an analogy to understand it, a No vote will be nil-nil, a Yes vote will be UK nil – Scotland minus 1.

Oh the irony.

Junkyard – lazarus

Oh the irony.

On the grounds that you’ve uncharacteristically made a post that at first glance appears to be free of spelling and grammatical errors, I’ll do you the honour of a reply.
Care to explain, or is your post simply what the STW random post generator threw up for you?

It was a no-score draw, a bit like this discussion

@bencooper, excellent.

I thought I would check back in to see if much had changed with the last 750 posts but it seems not to have done.

If you need an analogy to understand it, a No vote will be nil-nil, a Yes vote will be UK nil – Scotland minus 1.

I rest my case 😀

Allow me,

This is like trying to reason with the terminally religious.

If you need an analogy to understand it, a No vote will be nil-nil, a Yes vote will be UK nil – Scotland minus 1.

You have been going into one side of the argument in great detail,without actually accepting there may be an argument for an independent Scotland. A bit like the “terminally religious” do when confronted by any suggestion they may be barking up the wrong tree.