GBP against the Euro

[Cyberman]

No, they would not because LIBOR would not have dropped with BoE dropping rates and inflation would soar because commodities are priced in dollars - pound only recently was £1 for $2, now it's closer to $1.5 - drop of good 25%, imagine what kind of inflation would this have caused when oil was $150 per barrel? Most of disposable income recently was eroded by energy prices, food (as consequence) etc - if anything BoE played it right to avoid dropping rates (and as the result devaluing pound) too early, at least now commodities peak is behind us so devaluation is not as bad as it would have been otherwise.

Inflation was immaterial and the BofE at last have realised that. Their priority should have been to avoid a recession, and they quite clearly have failed. Inflation falls anyway as demand falls due to to current very serious crisis, exacerbated by HMG !!

[AtW]

Inflation was immaterial

Oh really? So people are now paying out like extra £1000 per year in energy charges, food is much more expensive etc etc - and you say if pound dropped 25% value starting last year when dollar prices were at height would be great thing?

Inflation falls anyway as demand falls due to to current very serious crisis, exacerbated by HMG !!

It won't fall now that the rates were dropped - 25% drop in pound value is a very large devaluation, we will see modest reductions in energy bills next year now - BoE should have kept high rates to keep pound up, but they did not since they are obviously under the thumb of Govt despite "independence" bollox that I never bought into.

[DiscoStu]

Watching AtW and CyberTory argue about economics is like watching two one-legged men try to have an arse kicking contest...

[thunderlizard]

Is it still OK to say "Sound as a pound!"?

[AtW]

Is it still OK to say "Sound as a pound!"?

As safe as "bricks and mortar" - maybe they meant different kind of mortar?

[expat]

Scotland in the UK gets 1,000 pounds per head more in state spending than the rest of the UK.

That old lie! No, it doesn't. The Barnett Formula is a Thatcher-era kludge described by its author Barnett as not a formula but a back-of-the-envelope estimate, designed to squeeze Scottish funding, not expand it. All it does is guarantee at least part of Scotland's enormous budget contribution coming back.

The sooner they leave, the better as far as I am concerned.

Total agreement there! Except:

1. England, unlike many other countries, does not have a good record for allowing peoples their freedom. Not without a good bit of violence. Even a little bit just makes the English self-righteously see themselves as the victims, so they "bravely" strike back.... it is sad. I can only say that the Scots are ready. English steel has never in history laid us low, only English gold, or treacherous Scottish nobility.

2. I will not go away without saying that many decent English people (and there are many) have long thought, rightly or wrongly, that they were subsidising Scotland - and they were willing to do so. That should not go unnoticed.

[AtW]

1. England, unlike many other countries, does not have a good record for allowing peoples their freedom.

Rubbish - there isn't another still existing core member of empire that allowed its colonies to go free and keep good relations with them.

Personally I am all for Scotland to be independent or Wales if they want to. I doubt though that referendum on those parts of UK would succeed right now or at all.

[Cyberman]

That old lie! No, it doesn't. The Barnett Formula is a Thatcher-era kludge described by its author Barnett as not a formula but a back-of-the-envelope estimate, designed to squeeze Scottish funding, not expand it. All it does is guarantee at least part of Scotland's enormous budget contribution coming back.

Total agreement there! Except:

1. England, unlike many other countries, does not have a good record for allowing peoples their freedom. Not without a good bit of violence. Even a little bit just makes the English self-righteously see themselves as the victims, so they "bravely" strike back.... it is sad. I can only say that the Scots are ready. English steel has never in history laid us low, only English gold, or treacherous Scottish nobility.

2. I will not go away without saying that many decent English people (and there are many) have long thought, rightly or wrongly, that they were subsidising Scotland - and they were willing to do so. That should not go unnoticed.

So how come Scots get free university education, free prescriptions, their own Parliament etc. ? You're having a laugh !!

[expat]

So how come Scots get free university education, free prescriptions, their own Parliament etc. ? You're having a laugh !!

Because their government decided to use some of its money for those things rather than for whatever it is that your government spends its money on.

Why assume that because Scots "get" these things "free", they "get" then "free" from England?

[expat]

Rubbish - there isn't another still existing core member of empire that allowed its colonies to go free and keep good relations with them.

We are talking not of distant empire but of a close neighbour that had been assimilated, and wanted its independence back. In that vein:

Belgium from Netherlands.
Norway from Sweden.
Greenland, more or less, from Denmark.

All relatively peaceful; self-rule accepted by core country.

Compare with Ireland, for example.