This week’s Scotland on Sunday is full of the usual outpourings of fear and madness (our absolute favourite is a standout piece of howling-at-the-moon insanity from frothing Tory loonbag Gerald Warner, magnificently entitled “Feminism driving holocaust of abortion”), but one in particular caught our eye.
Headed “Independent Scotland at risk from bank crash“, the Tom Peterkin effort (based, in fairness, on an imminent UK government document) kicks straight off with an opening line that’s a top-shelf example of hysterical sub-Daily-Mail scaremongering. But it’s the second line that makes it special.
We got an email from our Prague correspondent last night, but that’s not the only thing the disgraceful pun in the headline refers to. As Michael Moore was kicked around the playground by Nicola Sturgeon in the first Scotland Tonight debate that same evening, the soggy security blanket he clung to more than anything else was the currency issue, which the No camp appears to believe is now its most powerful weapon.
It’s a two-pronged Trident, if you’ll forgive the even more tortured wordplay in that metaphor. Firstly there’s the scaremongering part containing the (empty) threat that the rUK would refuse to enter a currency union with an independent Scotland, forcing it to join the embattled Euro, and as back-up there’s the claim that if we DID get a currency union, Scotland would somehow end up getting less consideration from the Bank of England governors when it came to monetary policy than the none it gets now.
Let’s take the briefest look we can manage at both of those assertions.
We’re indebted to the alert reader who sent us a link to this last night:
If you don’t have time to sit through it all now, it’s an STV referendum debate – not about independence in 2014, but about devolution in 1997. In short, all the arguments and dire warnings we’re fed by Unionists now about independence were also deployed against devolution, which doesn’t in fact seem to have caused the sky to fall in.
It’s also interesting to note a BBC news story uncovered by National Collective this morning which reports a poll finding that “76% of businesses believe a double-yes vote in Thursday’s referendum would harm the climate for business in Scotland”.
While right-wing, conservative organisations like the CBI and FSB will doubtless never stop bleating about the terrible “uncertainty” of constitutional change, it’s good to see that there’s been at least some progress made in that field.
Hang on. The heart of the latest No campaign/media scare story is that the enormous pension deficit currently looming over the UK like a great big multi-billion-pound fiscal sword of Damocles (but which everyone is feverishly avoiding looking at) will become much more urgent in the event of Scottish independence, because according to EU rules “cross-border” pensions can’t just boot the problem into the long grass for years, and have to ensure any shortfall is funded immediately.
EU rules? But haven’t the Unionists spent most of the last six months telling us that an independent Scotland wouldn’t be an EU member, and would have to wait years at the back of the queue to join as a new country? Phew! Problem solved!
We’ve taken quite a lot of cold medication this week, readers, and it’s caused us to have a bit of an epiphany. We’ve realised that our constant advocacy of independence is a recklessly optimistic position which takes no account of the very real dangers of separating Scotland from the rest of the UK (and the world), and that in order to be responsible citizens we ought to present a more balanced picture.
We’ve decided, therefore, to use this page to keep track of the numerous and often serious potential consequences of a Yes vote in 2014, as helpfully pointed out by our concerned countrymen south of the border and the cooler heads in our own land.
Young Lochinvar on The Modern Politician: “HMcH & 1.26 But then again, you aren’t a normal Scot are you. Aff yer (f8scist) knees Mosley and consider…” Feb 13, 01:15
Young Lochinvar on The Modern Politician: “Thing is, we aren’t likely to find out as MSM such as ITN have dropped reporting on the issue in…” Feb 13, 00:59
Young Lochinvar on The Modern Politician: “I rest my case.. You get upset by certain posters but abstain from adding “whanging oan” 24/7 contrarians like HMcH…” Feb 13, 00:50
Iain More on The Modern Politician: “I see our resident Yoon Troll NAZI Child Rapist Protector is back.” Feb 12, 22:17
sam on The Modern Politician: “Cambridge Journal of Economics, Volume 44, Issue 2, March 2020, Pages 319–342, https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bez037 “1979 and all that: a 40-year reassessment…” Feb 12, 21:54
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““a fully liberated people will need to remove its colonial collaborators” You’ve got some balls, Alf. Respect. You’ve made it…” Feb 12, 21:00
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Looks like you’ve got SFA practical, plausible or sensible that could make a start on righting the troubles Scotland is…” Feb 12, 20:51
David Holden on The Modern Politician: “Looks like the troll collective has got some overtime pay. Oh deep joy.” Feb 12, 20:21
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “Alf: ditching England is not going to be the final answer because there are other kinds of colonisers just waiting…” Feb 12, 19:39
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““We adhere to national guidance set by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in relation to custody searches involving transgender suspects”…” Feb 12, 19:16
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Well now, willie, why didn’t you say earlier? If Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson are for selling off the SNHS…” Feb 12, 19:05
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “The point is that it’s 35 years since Thatcher exited stage right, and despite some of the opportunities I list,…” Feb 12, 18:59
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Modern Politician: “NORFOLK POLICE CRITICISED OVER INACCURATE RECORDING OF SUSPECTS’ SEX Norfolk Constabulary has faced strong criticism for recording suspects’ preferred gender…” Feb 12, 18:30
willie on The Modern Politician: “Nigel Farage’s policy is to privatise the health service in the style of the corporate market supplied healthcare in the…” Feb 12, 18:28
sam on The Modern Politician: “You are such a fucking idiot I usually ignore what you say. UK life expectancy has been improving ever since…” Feb 12, 18:20
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““one in four Scots is intending to vote Reform, a party with a leader who supports USA style privatisation, the…” Feb 12, 17:27
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Aye, sam, ye’re a grand auld fossil so ye are. We should slap a protection order oan ye. You can’t…” Feb 12, 17:15
Willie on The Modern Politician: “To be fair Sam the Scottish Government under Alex Salmond did much to try to minimise the Thatcher type policies…” Feb 12, 17:01
sam on The Modern Politician: “Just a little bit of the effect of Thatcher on the NHS https://www.pilc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/PILC_OS_Sum_PRESS.pdf A survey last year of 9000 Unison…” Feb 12, 15:47
Alf Baird on The Modern Politician: ““we need to cleanse the Augean Stables first” By implication, a fully liberated people will need to remove its colonial…” Feb 12, 15:23
PC Foster on The Modern Politician: “@andrew scott Aye- a woman in a dress actually means- a man in a frock (MIAF).” Feb 12, 15:09
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Lorna, thanks for your reply. “most SNP voters who want independence, and they are not the only ones who vote…” Feb 12, 15:07
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “H McH: if you believe that politicians get voted in because they are doing nothing wrong in the public’s perception,…” Feb 12, 14:43
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Sure, Bilbo. You’re gonna slag off Ratcliffe, not because he’s wrong, but because he’s got more money than you. I’m…” Feb 12, 14:30
Lorna Campbell on The Modern Politician: “Willie: I think the fundamental problem is that adherence to this ordure is a mental ill-health issue, not a physical…” Feb 12, 14:25
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Denying the very existence of the female sex would be the ultimate in anti female hate, Marie. But I’m unaware…” Feb 12, 14:23
Marie on The Modern Politician: “Denying the very existence of the female sex is the ultimate in anti female hate. That has come from the…” Feb 12, 14:04
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: ““In the 20c Europe initiated two apocalyptic wars” We don’t do that any more, TURABDIN. We’ve lost all will to…” Feb 12, 13:52
Hatey McHateface on The Modern Politician: “Worth asking, Confused, have you ever submitted material to Viz? For some reason “The Bottom Inspectors” comes to mind.” Feb 12, 13:39
