Morning all. Been a wet and windy night here, too. As for the Scottish pound, I once had a couple of Scottish notes and no overseas bank would accept them. Even the Indian shopkeeper down the road from me was wary of them. Still, I understand Scottish sentiments. We have a big neighbour which has legislative provision for the incorporation of NZ. Even their flag has been designed to allow for the "incorporation of future territories".
Jersey notes are accepted in all of the Channel Islands and that is it. However, we accept Bank of England notes, even though the States Treasury bleats on about it being better for the Jersey economy if they aren't used here. I'm not sure if we accept Scottish and Manx notes but I couldn't use my Jersey notes in IoM last April. It is difficult for us not to accept the BoE notes with having reciprocal agreements on health and other things. Some places on the island will accept euros, which must be worse for our economy than accepting the others I have mentioned. I hope that our First Minister has had discussions with Alex Salmond on what reciprocal agreements Jersey will have with an independent Scotland, but I doubt it. Knowing what the politicians on the island are like, he will probably wait to see what the outcome of the vote is before deciding to enter those negotiations.
Whether or not there is a problem with a currency union is a question of who you believe - Alex Salmond doesn't appear to think so, as his response to Osborne indicates - http://www.newsnetscotland.com/inde...ne-bully-boy-tactics-over-pound-will-backfire - so there may be no need for a back up or alternative plan. Out of the four players in this game - Cameron, Osborne, Alexander and Salmond - only one has any real credence, and he's in Holyrood. It does seem strange that Cameron's Crew are attacking on this front though - recent polls up here suggest that 'currency' is well down the list of concerns for voters, at only 2%. But then, being Tories, maybe they simply can't see that the main concerns for most in Scotland are ones of social justice, a fairer society for all rather than the Tory vision of the opposite.
Doesn't really matter what currency is used in Scotland, it will only be tourists spending it, we all know how loathe a Jock is to part with his hard-earned cash!
Oh please, I hate the Tories as much as you obviously do, but Salmond having credence! He's so desperate to be the President and Prime Minister of an independent country that he will say and do anything to achieve that end. It is entirely up to the Scots whether Scotland becomes an independent country of course - but if they do, then we in the rest of the UK should treat them as a foreign country (as any other country depending on whether they join the EU) - not in the half-arsed way that we have treated the Irish since they fought a bitter war of independence 90 years ago - then fought amongst themselves for another 18 months. Passports, border controls, employment restrictions (applying to Scots already in the rest of the UK) etc. etc. If Scotland wants to be independent, then it should indeed be a proper separation.
Any Scott who seriously wants independence is frankly a nationalistic narrow minded moron (basically describes Salmond). There is zero benefit and many disadvantages. I for one will move back South if it ever goes through and make it my mission to evict the Scotts back here to pay for their own prescriptions, infrastructure, Uni fees etc... thanks Westminster for subsidizing my high quality of life....
If the Scots vote to be independent what will their money be? They will have to take the Euro if they join the European Union. To me it is clear they cannot continue to use the Pound from England, perhaps have a Scottish version from all their different banks. We continued with Krónur but it is different from Danmörk.
We already have Scottish notes from Scottish banks but they are not legal tender. They have no basis in gold, just the paper they are written on.
BB that's not quite true. My brother has a house by the Thames and he works hard to keep it, but in all honesty it is nothing more than a glorified shed with picture windows. The one redeming feature is it is built on concealed stilts so the flooding, luckily for him, only came to his back door. The people have expensive houses will have had expensive damage done and you forget the flooding reaches quite a distance away from the usual path of the river, where the not so wealthy will be suffering.
Apart from the obvious - a surplus balance of trade, which will strengthen whichever currency Scotland end up adopting, making the country an attractive prospect for lenders. rUK on the other hand will probably experience the opposite, which is the real reason behind the three main parties joining forces with their pro-no bullying action. Salmond may well be pinning his hopes on Cameron's Crew backing down after a 'Yes' vote (always assuming that there is one) - we'll just have to wait and see. If I were a gambler, my money would be on him though, not that that means anything. He does have two things in his favour though - firstly most Scots view that the pound Sterling is as much their currency as it is England's and they don't take kindly to English bullying (I'm sure this will be given air time over the next few months); secondly, Westminster can't see beyond the £ signs at the end of their noses and know exactly what their threatened action will mean for the rUK. As for evicting Scots back to Scotland - well, good luck with that. Legislation is against that happening, and look at the trouble May had getting rid of one pesky Muslim cleric - I can't really see too many peaceful, domiciled taxpayers being successfully deported.
Scotland can have their own country and money for all I care about it really. If people want it let them have it, if it is voted that way. So long as it DOESN'T mean a reduced importation of Irn-Bru.
Leaving the money aside for a moment, should Scotland become an independent country what will happen to things like mobile phones etc? Will roaming charges start to apply, how much will it cost a person to buy a passport as they will have a useless UK one, will the subsidies that the large retailers admit they give to the shoppers to keep down the additional transport costs go? Returning to the bullying accusation he would of course use that as an argument, but the harsh reality is that if you read an assessment given by economists from several other countries not involved, the difficulties of expecting a foreign country to give a guarantee for another when borrowing on the world market is cloud cuckoo land. The Euro in theory gives a far better option for that sort of arrangement, but then as a foreign country outside the EU they will not give Scotland backing either. Salmond is flailing around with a big issue that he has no answer to, and as you say BB he is just hoping that a solution will appear.
When I heard the English response to monetary union my first thought was that it would push more Scots into the 'Yes' camp. From a distance it does sound like bullying - the sort of bullying that independence is supposed to remove. Independence won't do that, of course. Small countries are always bullied by larger ones. If I were in Salmond's position I would be secretly lobbying FIFA to declare that the UK is only allowed one team in international competitions. That would surely result in Independence! On another note, I have always thought that all the citizens of the UK should have a vote on the constituent parts of the country. In the case of the Scottish referendum Scotland would gain independence if the Scots voted for it. They would also get it if the rest of the UK decided that they didn't want Scotland as part of the country.
I had thought about those type of issues but haven't seen mention of them so don't have an answer. They may well be covered in SNP's 600 page blueprint for Scotland's Future - but reading that is not high up on my bucket list & I'm waiting for them to be publically discussed nearer to the referendum date. Putting aside all the nuts & bolts of how independence will or won't work, the one thing that is clear is that Scotland is between a rock and a hard place - vote Yes and the future is uncertain, it may be a successful move or it may not be; vote No and the Westminster have already indicated that things most certainly will get worse with a £4bn funding cut being the best we can expect - this from a government that has suddenly changed tune and describes the UK as wealthy. So there's the voters' choice - the certainty of more financial hardship with all that that entails, or the opportunity to try to improve their current lot. For me, there's no safety first in voting to stay in the Union and a Yes vote is a no-brainer.
I'm assuming that you mean it is an obvious decision to vote for independence rather than you would only vote "Yes" if you had no brain.........
evening from yet another scorching lower hutt evening will the union jack go if the sweatys vote yes will the English be allowed to fly the cross of st George without revisionist shame how many unemployed brickies will it take to fully rebuild hadrians wall does anyone really care last I heard 27% of jocks wanted independence and 29% of the English wanted to give it to them
