Reply to: Scotland's new currency

[minestrone]

Some sort of revenge for Culloden then?

'Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence' as our old ally Napoleon once said. Although it is a challenge adequately explaining Brown's incompetence.

[minestrone]

Blair was born in Scotland, with a Scottish dad and a Scottish schooling. He may have been deliberately ambiguous about it but he was more Scottish than English.

So it was really a Scottish tag team that destroyed the English economy, Brown was just one part of it.

[Doggy Styles]

No one voted for the one-eyed Scottish idiot to be prime minister....

Several thousand Scots voted for him to be an MP.

But I'm not sure who was responsible for making him Chancellor, and then PM. Was it the Labour 'Collegiate', whatever that is?

[Wanderer]

You voted for a Scotch politician?

No one voted for the one-eyed Scottish idiot to be prime minister....

[Doggy Styles]

Oh dear. I hadn't realised you were quite that ignorant.

I think you'll find he is!

[petergriffin]

Scotland could take inspiration from the WIR bank, which is not a bank but a community currency:
WIR Bank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[doodab]

Neither of them.

[Troll]

Scotland is not a nation of armed separatists?

Biological & Chemical warfare actually ... but fair do's about targeting Cherie

Operation Dark Harvest

In 1981 newspapers began receiving messages with the heading "Operation Dark Harvest" which demanded that the government decontaminate the island (Gruinard), and reported that a "team of microbiologists from two universities" had landed on the island with the aid of local people and collected 300 lb (140 kg) of soil. The group threatened to leave samples of the soil "at appropriate points that will ensure the rapid loss of indifference of the government and the equally rapid education of the general public". The same day a sealed package of soil was left outside the military research facility at Porton Down; tests revealed that it contained anthrax bacilli. A few days later another sealed package of soil was left in Blackpool, where the ruling Conservative Party was holding its annual conference. The soil did not contain anthrax, but officials said that the soil was similar to that found on the island

The Scottish National Liberation Army (SNLA), sometimes dubbed the 'Tartan Terrorists', was a militant group which aimed to bring about Scottish independence from the United Kingdom. The SNLA has been proscribed by the UK government.
In January 2008 two men, Wayne Cook and Steven Robinson were convicted in Manchester of sending miniature bottles of vodka contaminated with caustic soda and threatening to kill English people 'with no hesitation or compunction' by poisoning the country's water supply, echoing a previous threat in 2006. The accompanying letters were signed 'SNLA'. Cook and Robinson were each sentenced to six years for these offences.

The previously most high profile act occurred in 1983 when letter bombs were sent to Lady Diana Spencer and to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The device sent to Thatcher was active and was opened by parliamentarian Robert Key: there was no explosion. Busby fled to Dublin in 1983 after the letter-bombing campaign; he was jailed in connection with that campaign in 1997.[2]

In 1993, Andrew McIntosh was jailed for 12 years for conspiring to coerce the government into setting up a separate government in Scotland. The High Court in Aberdeen heard McIntosh had masterminded a campaign of disruption and fear which included placing bombs outside oil industry offices and sending letter bombs to the Scottish Office in Edinburgh. McIntosh served six years and was released in 1999. He died in 2004 after being arrested on firearms charges.[3]

In 2002 Cherie Blair became a target of a renewed campaign by the SNLA when she was sent an anonymous parcel containing a vial that was crudely labeled as containing 'Massage Oil', but which on investigation actually proved to contain caustic acid. In addition to this attempted attack a renewed letter bomb campaign was waged against Scottish politicians the same year. The parcels were recovered after a man claiming to be from the Scottish National Liberation Army made an anonymous phone call to Scotland Yard. Professor Paul Wilkinson opined at the time: "The SNLA has surfaced from time to time."[4] Meanwhile, Busby may be targeted for extradition to America to face terror charges following a series of e-mails to America about how to contaminate US water supplies.[1]

In February 2007, SNLA involvement was claimed in the fatal Grayrigg derailment of a Virgin train traveling from London to Glasgow. A points failure was later found to be responsible. Preliminary investigation indicated that there was probably no sabotage.[5]

In June 2009, Adam Busby Jr., the son of the SNLA founder, was jailed for 6 years for sending a total of 6 packages to various political figures, including First Minister Alex Salmond, Liberal Democrats MSP Mike Rumbles and Glasgow City Council. The packages contained shotgun cartridges and threatening notes. Police linked the crimes to Busby after calls made to journalists claiming SNLA responsibility for the actions were traced to his mobile phone.[6]

In July 2010 Adam Busby Sr. was sentenced by an Irish court to four years in jail after being convicted in June 2010 of making hoax bomb threats against transatlantic flights

[doodab]

Now Scotland is part of the eurozone? Make up your minds. One minute it's the next it's out.

Jesus if you were any slower you'd be going backwards. If scotland were part of a formal sterling currency zone it would be part of a currency union and treated as such. I used Iceland and the eurozone as representative examples of how the IMF treats countries that are part of a currency union differently than those that aren't.

Why would the Bank of England have any authority over the IMF about who and who not they can lend to? Particularly so if Scotland is using the pound?

The point is that if you were part of a currency union the IMF would expect us to bail you out instead of them doing it. It has nothing to do with the BoE having authority over the IMF.

[Bunk]

Oh dear. I hadn't realised you were quite that ignorant. I'd assumed you were playing up your stupidty in order to troll. Unless this is a troll also and I've fallen for it.

I've made that mistake a few times but I've come to the conclusion that it's not an act, he actually is that stupid.

[MicrosoftBob]

The twin pillars of the once proud Scottish banking sector are now being propped up by the British state, oh hang on who was Salmond economist for again ????

Before the crash Salmond was calling for even lighter financial regulation than that imposed by New Labour ???

Who said "We are pledging a light-touch regulation suitable to a Scottish financial sector with its outstanding reputation for probity"

Now about that economic experience....

[scooterscot]

Who do we think is more qualified to run the Scottish economy?

[MicrosoftBob]

We should never have left the gold standard.

Gordon would only have sold off the reserves after announcing it to the world

[scooterscot]

But it was Scottish politicians in Westminister that caused the deficit, and the pensions black hole.

You voted for a Scotch politician?

[scooterscot]

Lender of last resort refers to the BoE lending to the market, financial institutions, banks. They provide money (liquidity) to a bank.

But that's the point. They don't provide money. They print it. First they prepare some IOU's, wrap them up as bonds and sell them to some mug. Then the printing presses fire up.

Astonishingly nothing of value has been created but nevertheless the UK currently considers itself a wealthy country. We've no idea what wealth is if we really believe this.

We should never have left the gold standard.