Scottish independence: Alex Salmond gets angry during SKY TV interview over his currency plans, political journalist Faisal Islam asks ‘would the Bank of England fund Scottish banks under his proposals without a currency union’, the answer is No

Dear All

It seems that Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond isn’t so jolly after all. Although he managed to achieve a better performance in the BBC debate against Alistair Darling, the SNP campaign is still nowhere near victory.

No Salmond bounce from the Scottish public.

This is possibly the saddest story I will probably write this week.

No matter how much gloss or spin Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon try and use, they can’t answer basic questions on fundamental issues such as currency.

What is Plan B?

The reason for so much interest is that The SNP’s Plan A; a currency union with the UK would be veto by any incoming government after the Westminster 2015 election.

Although ‘Sterlingisation’ has been mooted as an answer, the idea is a stopgap.

Plan A is the Euro for the Scottish National Party!

There are no other plans, it is all just talk, smoke and mirrors.

Currency Union and ‘Sterlingisation’ are ‘carrots’ for the ignorant to nibble on, but no matter who many ‘carrots’ the SNP try and use, their supporters are and will remain blind, blind and ignorant.

The rest of the population aren’t so trusting, hence we get Alex Salmond criticising leading political journalist Faisal Islam who is Sky’s political editor turning the heat up on Salmond.

A clearly upset and rattled Alex Salmond in an interview accused Sky's Faisal Islam of impersonating Alistair Darling after being repeatedly questioned on currency. SNP supporters think that people don’t have the right to ask questions.

We do!

The Monday night didn’t as Salmond claimed settle the issue.

Islam, the former economics editor of Channel 4 News had to ask an unhappy and angry Salmond three times if the Bank of England would fund Scottish banks under his proposal for a separate Scotland to continue using the pound without a currency union.

The answer to that is No!

No, means they will not fund Scottish banks, the upshot of this is, if a Scottish bank goes down, the savers will also lost their entire savings under whatever arrangement Salmond sets up. The banks would not have enough capital to fund having a greater reserve without contracting their businesses.

It is no surprise that Salmond refuses to answer because he then has to admit he is economically illiterate, he didn’t call the Better Together campaign’s bluff. He just continued the deception on the Scottish public. If you look and walk yourself through it, you will see the economic case doesn’t stack up in multiple areas.

On Monday night the First Minister’s attempted to close down the issue by saying he had three Plan B currencies if there was no deal to share the pound. It seems as well as being economically illiterate, he can’t use an Alphabet properly either.

Salmond shouted his way to “victory” on Monday, but the next day, the viewers got to have their say on a BBC Radio Scotland phone-in.

A series of callers said the morning after the debate said they were voting No. They cited continued uncertainty over the currency, at the start of the Scottish independence campaign; I said a Scottish currency had to be planned for as Plan A. You would have a range of options but you would have to spell out the pros and cons so people could make an informed choice.

Salmond argues the main UK parties are bluffing about rejecting his preference for a Eurozone-style currency union, the question is why they should issue Scotland with in effect a blank cheque? The UK takes all the risk and in return they get nothing for it, does that make sense?

I mean stop and think about it for a minute.

Scotland could use the pound unilaterally just like as countries such as Panama use the US dollar. What people need to understand is that the Bank of England would no longer acting as Scotland’s central bank or lender of last resort. The nonsense spun by the SNP leaders is deception, ‘it’s our pound’ is a retread of the failed 1970’s campaign ‘it’s our Oil’. As well as being economically illiterate, they are politically illiterate into the bargain.

Salmond even previously admitted he was willing to use a stopgap but the problem flagged up by one of his most senior economic advisers was it could last as little as six months. That is wishful thinking because it would be several years before an independent Scotland could even get into the EU if at all.

And remember Salmond threatened to not pay Scotland’s share of UK debt. If I was PM of the UK and Scotland’s membership came to vote, I would veto it until all monies and interest was paid up front and in full plus a penalty for each month of non payment.

Sky’s political editor questioned why the Bank of England would support Scottish banks if there was no currency union.

Salmond said:

“You can’t play at being Alistair Darling. He had his chance and he muffed it last night. The currency bluff has been called. The Scottish people are calling that bluff”.

Ignoring that rubbish Islam refused to be deterred, asking him again how Scotland could operate with no lender of last resort.

Salmonnd’s smartarse remark was:

“You cannot now impersonate the No campaign. The No campaign had their chance. People have, I think, overwhelmingly in Scotland now in poll after poll shown that we want to keep the pound. That is the decision that the Scottish people are being asked to make. We're fighting a campaign to get a mandate from the Scottish people on common sense for a common currency. That's what won the debate last night and that's the message that's going to resonate over the next three weeks.”

Salmond ‘won’ not by argument, not by reason but by shouting down Alistair Darling.

In Islam’s third attempt, he pressed him on how Scotland could unilaterally adopt the pound when the Bank of England would not support Scottish banks.

Presumably after having a ‘good night’, Salmond must have thought he was on a roll as he sarcastically asked Islam which channel he had been watching on Monday night when the debate was screened, adding:

“Have a look at what the people thought about it, the audience thought about it, everybody apart from Sky News apparently. Get with the debate, man. The people of Scotland are there; maybe Sky News will catch up.”

On the issue of the 3 B’s, Darling said he would continue to demand “basic answers” to questions on issues like the currency.

The former Chancellor said:

“You can’t have three Plan Bs. You have to make your mind up.”

He added the financial services industry could not “exist” in a separate Scotland without a central bank, something which Salmond doesn’t seem to think is a problem.

Salmond appealed to his hardcore vote on Monday night, he bought himself sometime and breathing space, but the fact remains his performance didn’t win the argument, he couldn’t lay out a plan because if he says ‘Euro’, even his own temporary ‘allies’ would demand his resignation.

Presumably there will be a lot of people in the SNP very pleased with themselves at present, to which I would say look at the polls. They are moving enough to secure victory, although some people are sitting on the fence, they will have to make their minds up.

Although the question is ‘should Scotland be an independent country’, the real question that should focus hearts and minds is:

‘Do you wish to place the entire country in jeopardy?’

The silent majority will Vote No!

You cannot in good conscience vote for Salmond’s proposal to the detriment of the sick, the poor and the vulnerable. I was asked by some friends, ‘was I worried by the outcome of the BBC Debate in Glasgow’?

Nope!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University