Frankly I'm not sympethic to the SNP here. Hey man, you can't leave and country and demand they give you everything to make your new pad cushy. Fuck you, shit don't roll that way. Anyone with half a brain saw this coming but Salmond wanted to spin fairey tales.Britain's main political parties are seeking to gang up and bully the people of Scotland to remain in the UK by threatening to reject a currency union in the event of independence, the SNP deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has warned.
In a strong reaction to the Guardian's disclosure that George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander are planning to say that an independent Scotland could not keep the pound, the SNP said the three were guilty of "cack-handed panicky" tactics.
Sturgeon warned that a failure by the remainder of the UK to agree to a currency union with an independent Scotland would prompt Edinburgh to refuse to assume its share of the UK's debts.
The deputy first minister told Good Morning Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland: "It will backfire spectacularly on the no campaign [because] they are treating people like fools. People are not fools. People can see the sense of the position we are putting forward for Scotland and the rest of the UK. They know this is a rather cack-handed panicky campaign manoeuvre. I am not going to be bullied out of the right position for Scotland and for the rest of the UK."
Sturgeon spoke out after the Guardian reported that Britain's main political parties were planning to deliver a powerful message to the Scottish people that the remainder of the UK would refuse to form a currency union with Scotland if voters endorse independence in September's referendum.
David Cameron signalled at his Downing Street press conference on Tuesday that Osborne would be first out of the blocks later this week. The chancellor will reject a currency union as he develops his warning last week that first minister Alex Salmond's proposal had been "demolished" by the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, in a speech in Edinburgh last month.
The Guardian understands that Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury, and Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, will deliver similar warnings. But the three finance spokesman for Westminster's main political parties have decided that they should speak out on their own terms and in their own time because of the acute sensitivity of interventions in Scotland.
Sturgeon dismissed the joint UK position as a bluff as she said that a currency union would be in the interests of an independent Scotland and the remainder of the UK. It would also ensure that Scotland would assume its share of the UK's liabilities, including debt, after independence.
The Scottish deputy first minister told the BBC: "The Westminster establishment is trying to gang up on Scotland because they see it in the polls that they are losing the argument. We have to put their position under some degree of scrutiny.
"This would be an absurd position for any Westminster government to be in. It would cost their own businesses hundreds of millions of pounds in transaction costs, it would blow a massive hole in their balance of payments, it would leave them having to pick up the entirety of UK debt.
"This is a position that makes no sense, it is a tactical position for the purposes of a campaign in which their whole approach is to stir up fear and uncertainty. Let's see it for what it is, call it for what it is."
Asked whether an independent Scotland would refuse to assume its share of UK debt in the event of a rejection of a currency union, Sturgeon said: "The debt belongs legally to the Treasury. They confirmed that point last month. You can't default on debt that is not legally ours.
"But we have always said, and I will say again here very openly, I that Scotland should meet a fair share of the costs of servicing that debt. But assets and liabilities go hand in hand.
"We have got a UK government here that appears to be putting forward this notion that Scotland's deal in the union is to shoulder all of the debt but have none of the assets. The position of the UK government that they will reportedly articulate will not be their position after a yes vote. It begs the question: why would anyone want to stay part of a union where we are treated with such contempt?"
The three main UK parties believe Carney created the conditions for them to issue their warning when he said a currency union would involve the loss of some sovereignty. However, Carney added that the decision was entirely a matter for politicians in Edinburgh and London.
Osborne told the House of Lords economics affairs committee last week: "I think that, frankly, Alex Salmond's claims about the currency were pretty effectively demolished by the governor of the Bank of England.
"It was a very non-partisan technical speech from a Canadian citizen, who pointed out that the conditions for a successful monetary union require the ceding of sovereignty and the creation of a banking union. That is why I said last year in Glasgow that I thought it was unlikely that a workable monetary union could be created. I will have more to say on the subject over the coming weeks."
Balls made clear his unease about a currency union in East Ayrshire last month. "Alex Salmond cannot continue to casually claim that Scotland could keep the pound," he said. "He simply cannot make that promise because it would take both sides to agree. The only way to guarantee the pound is to stay in the UK."
The anti-independence campaigners believe they are on strong ground, feeling that Salmond's call for a currency union is the strongest example of his strategy of "de-risking" independence.
They also say that his position is inconsistent. In 2009, he told a Catalan television station that there was a strong case for joining the euro in the wake of the financial crisis. He added: "Sterling is sinking like a stone."
I'll be blunt here, I'm rather amblivent to whether or not Scottland leaves the United Kingdom. I figure that's up to them and whatever they decide more power to them. But the SNL has been rather smary about the whole thing, spinning little castles out of sugar as to how everything will be lollypops and rose petals if the Scotts will only dump those damn English assholes, who totally don't deserve Scottland. No man, becoming your own country? It's a fucking risky business and you owe it to the voters to be blunt and explain both the risks and rewards.
Also this "Well we won't take any debt then!" business? Hey Salmond, you're aiming the fucking shotgun at your own face you idiot. The narrow end with a hole in it? Is suppose to point away from you. You do that bullshit and see how your EU application and I don't know... Anything else you want to do in the international arena goes for you? Since you've pissed off England good and proper and frankly, they're gonna be more important then you.
As for this "Wah, the English are bullying us by not just giving us everything we want!" shit? Politics is a contact sport you tosser. Toughen up and put on your big boy/girl pants.