Salmond on Newsnight

^ Personally I would like indepenence to happen only for the SNP to bring in a mandatory helmet law 😆

I’m no fan of Salmond, but I thought he did well in front of a typically obnoxious Paxo. The likening of him to Mugabe was crass and offensive to the people who have suffered under his rule. I’m surprised Salmond didn’t tell him to f*** off and walk out.

TBH I think the interview raises more questions of Paxo’s salary than Salmonds policies. There didn’t seem to be much intellectual content to his questioning, and I’m sure if we just want someone to be obnoxious, there are a number of characters on STW who would do it for a lot less then Paxo.

Actually TJ you are wrong on one point.

Great Britain is the name of a political construct, should Scotland leave the Union this would no longer exist.
However, Britain is the name of the Island that Scotland inhabits, If Scotland wishes to leave Britain you are going to need quite a lot of ships and an uninhabited landmass somewhere…

..There is always the South Pole! 😛

And as I pointed out on another thread, if Scotland gains independence, the rest will become Little Britain.

Seems apt 😀

Call it what you like – you’ll still have TJ – we still gain! 😛

It is economics, not culture, that will determine the future – and that looks less good for Mr Salmond’s independence case. Scotland could certainly survive. It would be wealthier in terms of gross domestic product per head than Italy, New Zealand or Spain and close to the UK average. But even if it received most of the revenue flowing from North Sea oil, a diminishing resource that lies in its waters, it would be likely to face austerity. As a newly independent small country with large fiscal deficits and high public debt, it would not command a triple A credit rating and would thus face higher borrowing costs than the UK. To reduce this, it is likely to have to cut public spending.

Mr Salmond wants Scotland to keep sterling until it decides to join the euro. But it would have to do this either without agreement, meaning it would have no central bank as lender of last resort, or by an accord under which the residual UK would insist on strict fiscal rules, meaning Scotland would enjoy independence in neither monetary nor taxation terms. The regulation of financial services would also be an issue. Scotland is home to several large institutions, including Royal Bank of Scotland and assurers such as Standard Life. An independent Scotland would have a limited ability to stand behind deposits.
And what of devo max? That is the vaguest option. A Scotland bill currently going through Westminster will give Scotland’s parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh the power to raise about 35 per cent of tax in Scotland. Devo max would probably increase that to at least 60 per cent.

Under one variant proposed by Reform Scotland, a think-tank, Holyrood would control most taxes, including income tax and corporation tax, leaving Westminster with value added tax and national insurance. But to avoid deep public spending cuts, Scotland would need its “geographical share” of oil revenues. Professor Arthur Midwinter, a former adviser to Holyrood’s finance committee, says devo max would be a “recipe for political conflict with the UK”.

Some food for thought from today’s FT.

if Scotland gains independence, the rest will become Little Britain.

That already exists – Brittany/Bretagne.

[/url] Image1[/url] by TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Crikey, still on!

Put them Scots to hard labour while the chance is still available before they run free.

😆

Top Trollin.

There is a quote up there about having a basket case country as a neighbour. You should be scared of that, we have one already and it is truly horrendous.

I see Dave is at it again:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/16/david-cameron-scottish-independence-flaws

Not great arguments imo.

Not great arguments imo.

It doesn’t matter. The point is to talk about something that is not the economy and not the total lack of ConLibDem coherent policy.

I was surprised that I quite liked Salmond’s response to Cameron – he likes Cameron’s talk of respect and looks forward to giving him the opportunity to demonstrate respect in his actions.

I mean, goading Cameron into backing up spin with action – simple but genius. Everyone knows that Cameron is basically incapable of backing anything he says with action.

On a lighter note, I wonder if Cameron will emphasise the Scots roots of his name by turning up in an inappropriate tartan?

Mr Cameron said the independence issue had to be dealt with simply, saying: “We have to settle that question before then going on and asking, I think quite legitimately, is there more that we can do to improve the devolved settlement?

“Are there powers that could be devolved, how can we make the United Kingdom work better?”Why wait Mr Cameron? If you have some proposals, put them on the table in time for 2014 and let the Scottish public decide what they prefer?

igm – no surprise really – Salmond is good political operator – makes the rest of the UK politicians look as ineffective as they are

He runs rings round Cameron

TJ – not surprised Salmond can run rings round the Cameron. More surprised that I liked his response. Having met Salmond years ago, I’ve always found him an obnoxious little swine. Good political operator though.

Sadly I doubt Salmond is actually any more effective when it comes to it than Cameron, Minibrand or the other one.

🙂

muddydwarf – Member
…However, Britain is the name of the Island that Scotland inhabits, If Scotland wishes to leave Britain you are going to need quite a lot of ships and an uninhabited landmass somewhere…

We could build a ruddy great moat across the country. Call it the Disunion Canal.

It’s been tried before. The Romans built a useful barrier to keep the barbarians out. We Scots were puzzled as to why they kindly did this for us as we were well capable of dealing with those barbarians. 🙂

Or in other words, no amount of logical argument is going to stop this process.

Scots are going to vote according to their existing beliefs about independence, and all the verbiage in the Murdoch press and scare mongering by local quislings is for nought.