The message is clearly co-ordinated by all three UK-wide parties to close off any lingering hope of monetary union between rUK and sepScotland. On the one hand, the official Treasury report sets out what would have to be put in place to make a Sterling currency zone work, and on the other hand all the parties who are likely to have a say in it have given their political response to the technical assessment, which is (unsurprisingly) that the United Kingdom does not wish to have a formal currency union with a foreign state.
Only the most deluded seps actually thought a Sterling zone was possible, and even then only since their high priest Alec told them to think so, because his earlier prophesies of Scotland's prosperity lying in monetary union with the Eurozone proved less than watertight.
And, let's not forget, the Scottish electorate are not fools, and polls show that most of them had already concluded for themselves that a Sterling zone was not likely to be on the table in the event of a 'yes' vote.
So: a separate Scotland will either have to resurrect Pound Scots, with or without Sterling peg, or else use Sterling as a substitute currency. All of these have risks. Personally I think once the minds of the voters begin to concentrate on how they're *actually* going to vote in September, this one issue will bury the Guess camp more effectively than any other single question.
---------- Post added at 19:12 ---------- Previous post was at 19:08 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry
Yes, I read that earlier. Balls, however, is apparently to make a statement at a later unspecified date and he has, frankly, been wooing the Scots for months reassuring them of his committment to The Edinburgh Agreement and making noises about what he'll do for Scotland if / when he becomes chancellor. Suspicious? Me? Never.
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Be as suspicious as you like but don't take Ed Balls for an idiot. He's an English Labour politician who knows that his chances of future high office are much better with 50-odd Scottish Labour MPs sitting in Westminster than without them. There is absolutely no way he is going to do anything to make the SNP's job easier here.
The pre-briefing that has gone on over the past 24 hours is quite stark. Whoever is responsible for it has been able to point the BBC, the Grauniad and the Daily Wail (all of whom seem to have been at the front of the queue for handouts) not just to the conclusions of a report by Treasury officials, but also to forthcoming comments by the Treasury spokesmen of
all three main parties.