WHEN
POLITICIANS accuse each other of desperation and panic, I tend not to listen,
reckoning that it is the usual campaign hyperbole that tries to turn a minor
slip of the tongue into a monumental credibility-destroying gaffe.
But
I begin to think that it is an accusation that can be fairly levelled at Alex
Salmond over the currency issue in this referendum.
There
are certain tools that can be used to make the political equivalent of a
clinical diagnosis of desperation. One is whether the arguments being used to
shore up a position that has come under attack are robust or fatuous. And Mr
Salmond is now making claims which, under any serious inspection, are complete
nonsense.
In
an article in a Sunday newspaper, he wrote that Labour leader Ed Miliband’s
“hasty gambit to include a block on Scotland’s continued use of the pound in
Labour’s next Westminster manifesto” would be “saying to Scots ‘I will defy the
sovereign wish of the people in a referendum’”.
On
umpteen grounds, this is gibberish. Actually, the only sovereign wish that will
be expressed in the referendum will be the answer to the question: “Should
Scotland be an independent country?” If it is Yes, the sovereign will of the
people will be that Scotland becomes independent.
If
Mr Miliband said he would prevent Scotland from becoming independent, then that
would certainly defy Scotland’s sovereign will. But he isn’t saying that at
all. He is saying that Scotland can be an independent country if that’s what people
want, but they won’t get a sterling currency union.
Further
Reading:
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