Chris

That's the whole idea. He knows the Scottish electorate won't go for what his activists really want - not now, not ever - so he's trying to sell separation by making it fluffy and friendly and really no different to the way things are now, except without nasty Westminster.

Had the Eurozone not blown up he might even have got away with it. Unfortunately for him, just across the channel we have a real, live example of what happens when economies that share a common currency without common fiscal control get out of kilter. He cant sell Scotland independence based on the Euro, because brand Euro is badly tainted. And, irony of ironies, he can't sell independence based on a Sterling zone because, again, of the Euro.

The refrain we will hear Better Together repeat endlessly between now and September is this:

"In short, a durable, successful currency union requires some ceding of national sovereignty." - Mr M. Carney, Governor, Bank of England.

Any independence built on a shared currency with England is not really independence at all. So why vote for it? If we're going to keep the currency, we might as well keep our influence over the way it is run.