Lib Dems: SNP could gain independence by back door by Scott Macnab, The Scotsman Newspaper.

Willie Rennie, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

The SNP could still gain “independence by the back door” through an “ultra extreme” form of devolution in a post-election deal, Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie will say tonight.

The comments follow warnings by former First Minister Alex Salmond last week that the forthcoming UK election could be used to secure “home rule” for Scotland.

Mr Rennie will claim “the Nationalist campaign continues” in a keynote speech in Edinburgh.

But Nationalists last night dismissed the claims and insisted there is widespread support for Holyrood controlling all areas of government policy except defence and foreign affairs. “Independence can only be decided in a referendum,” said SNP backbench MSP Mark MacDonald.

Mr Rennie will go on the offensive in a lecture at the David Hume Institute this evening in Edinburgh.

“The SNP want independence by the back door,” Mr Rennie will say. “As a minimum they say they want a form of ultra-extreme devolution that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world and which would inevitably tip Scotland into independence.”

Mr Rennie will accuse Nationalists of “redefining what an election was about” after the votes have been counted.

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Alex Salmond to demand tax autonomy despite oil price by Simon Johnson, The Telegraph

Alex Salmond

Alex Salmond has said SNP MPs would demand full tax powers to support a Labour Government despite warnings this would mean billions of pounds more of Scottish spending cuts thanks to the plummeting oil price

.

The former First Minister’s intervention came as Scottish Parliament research showed nearly 16,000 North Sea jobs are at risk, the largest threat to employment faced by the country since the Ravenscraig steel plant closed 23 years ago.

He predicted the Nationalists could win a “barrow load” of seats in May’s general election and confirmed that a second independence referendum would not be among his conditions for propping up a minority Ed Miliband government.

Instead he said the SNP would demand “home rule”, which he defined as control over everything except defence and foreign affairs, meaning the Barnett formula would be abolished and Holyrood given control over all taxes and spending.

But Unionist parties warned this would mean an additional £18.6 billion of spending cuts to public services in Scotland thanks to North Sea oil prices having nosedived to around $50 per barrel.

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Further Reading

Oil crisis: SNP under fire over forecasts refusal. The Scotsman Newspaper

Pro-Union parties claim Alex Salmond's crusade could cost Scotland billions. The Daily Record

Salmond power bid slated as ‘back seat driving’ Daily Express

How Alex Salmond cheered on his pal Fred the Shred as he ruined Royal Bank of Scotland , Daily Mail

Alex Salmond blithely declares that an independent Scotland would be a land of milk and honey in which business magically flourishes, the economy will outgrow England’s and taxes will be slashed.

This crazily unrealistic and deeply irresponsible prospectus is very reminiscent of another Scot, whose arrogance and monumental incompetence cost British taxpayers £45 billion when they had to bail out the Royal Bank of Scotland, of which he had been boss.

Step forward Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin, who walked away from the wreckage of the once-proud institution with a £693,000-a-year, index-linked pension. It was his management of the Edinburgh-based bank that helped to trigger the worst recession since World War II — the financial crash in 2008.

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The man determined to shatter the UK: He is a gambler and former Maoist rabble-rouser who favoured direct action. Whatever else Salmond might lack, it is not self-belief . Daily Mail

Today Alex Salmond could preside over greatest upheaval in 300 years

It is climax of long journey for boy raised on Linlithgow council estate

He was key member of far-left faction of SNP and was kicked out of party

But slow rise has continued since 1987 when he was elected as an MP

Employees describe him as quick to anger, a bully - and a gifted orator

Few people noticed the attractive, middle-aged woman nervously watching the First Minister from the spin room on the night of his second debate with Alistair Darling.

Elegant and discreet, with a bright smile and an easy manner, Claire Howell has got closer to Alex Salmond in these last few months than most do in a lifetime.

She is his longstanding ‘happiness coach’, an enthusiastic ray of sunshine brought on board by the SNP to re-brand Team Salmond as friendly, approachable and electable.

In the run-up to the debate she had often been by his side, sitting in on high strategy Yes meetings and attending a Business for Scotland dinner at the Glasgow Marriott where Mr Salmond was the guest of honour.

But on that August night, under the hot lights of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Mr Salmond went off script.

Gone were the conciliatory gestures, the smiles and the softer language. Instead, Salmond the bruiser was back – his grin crumpling into a grimace, his hand a resolute fist, his manner loud and hectoring.

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Gordon Brown roars into life: On the eve of historic vote, ex-PM gives the speech of the campaign so why wasn't he in charge of the No campaign from the beginning? Daily Mail

  Former Prime Minister launches most passionate defence of the union yet

  Destroys Alex Salmond's attempt to 'own' Scotland as a country

  Brown bellows: 'What we created together, let no nationalist split asunder' 

  Extraordinary speech reignites talk that he should have led No campaign

  Poll shows 60% of Scots think Darling has done badly, but Brown 50%

Gordon Brown today delivered the speech of the referendum campaign, urging voters to have the 'confidence' to say No to independence.

The former Prime Minister tore into Alex Salmond, insisting Scotland does not belong to him or any other politician, declaring: 'Scotland belongs to all of us.'

Speaking without notes, he urged anyone with doubts about the risks of separation to vote No to save the Union, adding: 'What we created together, let no nationalist split asunder.'

The speech could become seen as one of the defining moments of the campaign, and reignite questions about whether Mr Brown should have fronted the No campaign from the start. 

Mr Brown addressed hundreds of UK supporters at a community centre in Glasgow, standing shoulder to shoulder with his former Chancellor Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign, and Scottish leaders from Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

In a direct challenge to Mr Salmond's claim that to vote Yes is the patriotic thing to do, Mr Brown said: 'Tell the Nationalists, it’s not their flag, their culture, their country or their streets.

'Tell them it’s everyone’s flag, everyone’s culture, everyone’s country and everyone’s streets.

'And tell them that our patriotic vision is bigger than nationalism; we want Scotland not leaving the UK, but leading the UK, and through leading the UK, leading in the world.' 

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Deutsch bank chief warns of dangers of Yes vote. The Scotsman

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE: The financial and economic arguments against Scottish independence are “overwhelming”, a leading bank warned as it compared a Yes vote to the mistakes which led to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In one of the starkest warnings yet issued by a financial institution, the chief economist at Deutsch Bank David Folkerts-Landau said voters and politicians had failed to grasp the potential severity of the negative consequences of separation.

He said he found it “incomprehensible” that Scots were even contemplating withdrawal from the United Kingdom, and pointed to the “recessions, higher taxes, lower public spending and higher interest rates” that had afflicted nations seen as potentially heading for the eurozone exit.

But the Scottish Government accused him of failing to take into account Scotland’s “strong fiscal position”, and said it would start life as an independent nation “from stronger economic foundations than any other nation in history”.

In a highly-critical analysis of the prospects of independence, Mr Folkerts-Landau said: “Everyone has the right to self-determination and to exercise his or her democratic rights.

“But there are times when fundamental political decisions have negative consequences far beyond what voters and politicians could have imagined. We feel that we are on the threshold of one such moment.

Why not read more here?

Brian Wilson: Secession leads to a dangerous end, The Scotsman

THE offer of a package of powers for Holyrood should have happened earlier, but at least it has happened now, writes Brian Wilson

AS, MERCIFULLY, the finishing line approaches, there is one phrase which stands out in my over-loaded recollection of the Scottish referendum campaign. It came from Pope Francis and he was not speaking specifically about Scotland, so much as division of countries and peoples in general.

The critical distinction he drew was between “independence for emancipation and independence for secession”. In a more intellectually demanding age, every nuance of the debate would have been measured against that yardstick. What exactly are we being asked to liberate ourselves from, and at what human cost, risk and precedent?

I was reminded yet again of the Pope Francis test when Alex Salmond, chief architect of division, this week drew an astonishing analogy between people registering for the Scottish referendum and “the scenes in South Africa…when people queued up to vote in the first free elections”. Here, surely, we were listening to a man operating at the delusory limits of self-aggrandisement.

To claim comparison between the suffering of South Africa’s black population, on the basis of institutionalised racism, and the position of Scotland within the UK is ludicrous and offensive. Disappointing though it may be to his followers, Mr Salmond is not the Biko of Banff but a shrewd populist who is adept at pressing buttons which would be best left unpressed and at driving wedges where none need exist.

Having wrapped himself in the flag that used to belong to all of us, Salmond wants us to take sides between “Team Scotland” and “Team Westminster”. Within that not very subtle code lies the insidious folly of what he is promoting. Everyone who follows him is, by definition, in “Team Scotland” while dissenters are branded as supporters of a hostile, alien entity.

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How SNP once kicked out 'royal hating' Salmond: Scottish National Party leader was once member of Republican faction expelled from party in the 1980s, Daily Mail

Salmond part of Republican faction expelled from SNP in 1980s

The 79 Group wanted to set up Scottish Socialist republic

Removal of Queen as Scotland's head of state one of its founding principles

Fervent Republicanism contrasts to his current support for the Queen

Alex Salmond was a leading member of a Republican faction that was expelled from the Scottish National Party in the 1980s.

The 79 Group – named after the year in which it was formed – wanted to set up a Scottish Socialist republic and spent several years fighting for more radical policies within the SNP. 

The removal of the Queen as Scotland’s head of state was one of its founding principles.

The group even had links with Irish republican party Sinn Fein at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Mr Salmond was one of its three spokesmen and took responsibility for publicity. He argued for greater militancy among workers, and advocated direct action including civil disobedience, according to his biographer, David Torrance.

‘I think Her Majesty the Queen, who has seen so many events in the course of her long reign, will be proud to be Queen of Scots as indeed we have been proud to have her as the monarch,’ the SNP leader said this week. But earlier this year, Mr MacAskill suggested there could be a referendum on scrapping the monarchy if Scots vote Yes.

He said in March: ‘We will inherit the situation we have with the Queen as head of state in the ceremonial capacity that she has. But it will be for the people of Scotland to decide.

‘If and when that would occur, if they wished to have a referendum, and we would hope we would become the government post-2016, it will be for whoever is in office then.’

The 79 Group, which was formally known as the ‘Interim Committee of the 79 Group Socialist Society’, was formed after the 1979 referendum asking Scots whether they wanted their own Scottish Assembly with devolved powers.

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Peevish and bristling, Salmond exploded at man from the Beeb. Daily Mail

Scotland do you really want this arrogant,  little man to lead you ?

This was meant to be the day Alex Salmond showed off his statesmanlike qualities to the world.

But instead of meeting the founding father of a brave new nation, the world’s media came to his grandly-named ‘international press conference’ to find a peevish man bristling with indignation over the parochial details of a very inconvenient truth.

For the grandest bank in Scotland had just announced it would pack up the boardroom and move its HQ to London if Scots vote for independence next week.

The RBS has been domiciled in Edinburgh since the days of George II. It could hardly be worse if Scottish Widows became Surrey Widows or Nessie suddenly moved ponds to Windermere.

Not so, according to Mr Salmond. The loss of the RBS would be a footling matter. The real scandal was that the news had been leaked to the BBC.

And they could only have got it from one source: ‘scaremongering’ officials at the Treasury. The fact that market-sensitive information had ended up in the hands of the media, he said, almost quivering with displeasure, was a matter of ‘extraordinary gravity, as serious a matter as you can possibly get’.

As journalists argued that RBS’s vote of no confidence in its motherland was the bigger deal, Mr Salmond was having none of it, particularly when questioned by BBC political editor Nick Robinson.

Arguing that it involved little more than the relocation of a ‘brass plaque’, Mr Salmond demanded that the BBC be dragged before an official investigation and made to blab.

‘Scotland is on the cusp of making history,’ Mr Salmond went on. ‘The eyes of the world are upon us. And what the world is seeing is an energised, articulate and peaceful debate.’ The ears of the world only had to wait five seconds longer before they heard the day’s first attack on ‘the blatant bullying and intimidation of Westminster government’.

Pretty much any irksome statistic could be attributed to ‘scaremongering’, ‘bullying’, public schoolboy politics’ and so on from That Lot.

Until very recently, international interest in this debate had not extended much beyond the provincial press in countries with an ongoing separatist squabble – principally Spain and Quebec.

Yesterday, there were earnest questions about future Scottish relations with Russia, Brazil and India. Perhaps the trickiest came from a German television presenter. She asked Mr Salmond to explain in what ways the English had a different identity from the Scots ‘because our audience don’t see it’.

‘This campaign of ours does not depend on identity,’ he replied.

Out in the streets right now, it seems to depend on little else.

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Rattled Salmond launches rant at the BBC after it revealed Royal Bank of SCOTLAND will quit country after 'Yes' vote. Daily Mail

  First Minister lashes out at broadcaster to deflect row over threat by banks

  RBS one of four major banks to turn its back on independent Scotland

  John Lewis, Waitrose and Asda say prices will rise if there is a Yes victory 

  SNP leader was accused of lying about oil reserves by industry members

  He calls for official inquiry into Treasury source who leaked RBS story 

  Insurance giant Standard Life said it would move south days after Yes vote

Alex Salmond today launched an extraordinary rant at the BBC after the broadcaster reported how even the Royal Bank of Scotland planned to relocate to England in the event of independence.

In a bizarre press conference he launched a series of petulant attacks on the BBC, Westminster leaders and the Australian prime minister.

And he revealed he has called for an official inquiry into the Treasury's 'deliberate attempt to cause uncertainty in the financial markets' by leaking details of RBS's fears about the break up of the Union.

The First Minister presided over an astonishing press conference for the world's press corps in which he was tetchy, rattled and – according to several observers – 'losing the plot'.

Another observer suggested this was Mr Salmond's 'Sheffield rally', a reference to Neil Kinnock's ill-fated cry of 'We're alright!' before he went on to lose the 1992 General Election.

At one point there was an ugly clash between the SNP leader and BBC political editor Nick Robinson over the fate of Scotland's banks if there is a Yes vote in next week's referendum.

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Why don't we tell the Scots to shove off! In a personal view (which the Mail disagrees with) SIMON HEFFER says what we fear many English people think, Daily Mail

Alex Salmond's offensive comparison of Scots voting for independence to the ending of apartheid and blacks being given the vote in South Africa took the rank dishonesty of the nationalists’ campaign to a new low yesterday.

Mandela went to prison for his beliefs, something that doesn’t appear to have happened to any Scottish Nationalists.

And, far from being victims of a cruel and unjust system, they have been encouraged to participate in the political process, and to live in a Union replete with opportunities — unlike millions in South Africa who were excluded from politics and advancement simply because they were the wrong race.

It was equally offensive to see Mr Salmond embracing immigrants from Eastern Europe and telling them that their intention to vote ‘Yes’ would be the culmination of their own long walk to freedom.

They chose to come to Scotland not because independence promises an extra layer of liberty, but because of the hard won, wide-ranging freedoms already available throughout the UK, and bestowed upon the Scots as they are bestowed upon every other Briton. 

Enough, frankly, is enough. We have long tolerated Mr Salmond’s mendacity, and his twisted loathing of the English, largely because many felt he would be the loser of this fight and should be indulged.

So when he dropped hints that the NHS would be privatised if there wasn’t a ‘Yes’ vote, or made up the rules about Scotland’s continuing membership of the EU as he went along, or exaggerated the wealth from Scottish oil revenues, we felt slightly patronising towards the old rogue, assuring ourselves of his inevitable humiliation in the September 18 vote.

Now that humiliation appears less certain, and the arrogant dishonesty is so overwhelming, it is time to tell him what some of us really think.

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Don't rip our family apart': At last, the PM gets passionate about the Union and warns there will be NO going back if Yes vote wins. Daily Mail

  EXCLUSIVE: PM issues rallying cry for the 'special alchemy of the UK'

  Together, he says, the nation fills the rest of the world with 'awe and envy'

  Plea came after heated debate as just eight days remain before polls open

  Three banks warned of calamity as Bank of England rejected plan for sterling

  Alex Salmond prompted anger with comparisons to post-Apartheid vote

David Cameron today issues a highly personal plea to the people of Scotland not to ‘rip apart’ the United Kingdom.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the Prime Minister tells Scots that the rest of the UK ‘desperately wants you to stay’.

But he warns there will be no second chances after next week’s referendum: ‘If the UK breaks apart, it breaks apart for ever.’

With opinion polls suggesting the referendum is now too close to call, Mr Salmond dismissed Westminster’s promises about more powers. ‘This is the day the No campaign finally disintegrated and fell apart at the seams,’ the first minister said. ‘Together, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg are the most distrusted Westminster politicians ever – and their collective presence in Scotland will be another massive boost for the Yes campaign.

‘The message of this extraordinary, last-minute reaction is that the Westminster elite are in a state of absolute panic as the ground in Scotland shifts under their feet.’

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What bright spark thought bullying and patronising us Scots was the way to win our votes? Daily Mail

These are dark times to be a Scot, a Unionist and a ‘No’ voter. After the referendum polls finally flipped in favour of a ‘Yes’ vote at the weekend, we should be in no doubt: it’s a real possibility that in just nine days’ time the United Kingdom will be voted out of existence.

As that sad prospect grows more likely, Alex Salmond’s cocky smirk spreads ever wider and there’s an arrogance to the separatists that manifests itself in withering contempt for the views, arguments and emotions of the many people like me who want to stay British. There’s an extra chill in the Scottish air this autumn.

At times, I feel like a stranger in a strange land. In Stirling — my peaceful, semi-rural hometown, which sits halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow — posters put up by the Better Together campaign have had the word ‘Scum’ scrawled across them, or been ripped down altogether.

Relationships with friends, colleagues, even family members, have become strained in this bruising climate.

It’s one thing to have to tolerate abuse from the other side — the organised mobbing, hectoring and egg-throwing that forced the former Labour Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy to call off his tour making the case for a united Britain was only the most visible example.

Equally, there’s no point denying the SNP-led Yes campaign has done its job well, mixing energy and passion with cynical but effective attacks on all aspects of Britain and, especially, Westminster.

What’s harder to take than any of this is the feeling that the campaign to save the Union — probably the most important political fight of our lifetimes — has been a lame, misjudged and overly negative affair.

Take last week, when Better Together launched a series of posters aimed at persuading the 10 per cent or so of voters who remain undecided to stick with the UK.

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Queen's fear over break up of Britain: Poll puts Scottish separatists in lead as Westminster convulses. Daily Mail

1.      The Queen has held talks with David Cameron after poll put separatists ahead

2.    Said to be 'great concern' at Buckingham Palace over 300-year-old Union

3.     Her Majesty is thought to be strongly in favour of Scotland remaining in UK

4.    Will be in Scotland at Balmoral on day of the vote as a sign of 'continuity'

5.     SNP say Queen will stay as head of state if country votes for independence

6.     But SNP's James Mason is calling for a referendum to replace the monarch

The Queen held talks with David Cameron yesterday amid panic at the prospect of the end of the 300-year-old Union.

With a shock poll putting Scottish separatists ahead for the first time, there was said to be ‘great concern’ at Buckingham Palace.

The Queen, who is thought to strongly favour the Union, will be in Scotland on September 18 – the day it could vote to break away from the rest of the UK.

Pro-Union MPs said her presence at Balmoral would be a sign of continuity.

‘There is a strong anti-monarchy element in the Scottish National Party,’ said former defence secretary Liam Fox.

‘You can bet your bottom dollar as soon as they get independence, their next target is going to be Scotland being a republic.’

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The final push for Alex Salmond’s land of fantasy, Telegraph

It is Thursday morning on Buchanan Street, Glasgow’s busiest shopping thoroughfare, and Scotland’s First Minister is doing what he does best: smirking.

Working his way through a boisterous crowd of placard-wielding Yes supporters, Alex Salmond revels in the adoration of his fans and poses for countless “selfies” with starstruck Nationalists out to pay homage on the 10th anniversary of his return as leader of the Scottish National Party.

The choice of location for this event, right in the middle of Glasgow, is very deliberate. With less than a fortnight until Scots vote on whether to leave the United Kingdom, Scotland’s largest city has turned into the front line in the referendum battle. To win, the Nationalists need to convert voters in the west of Scotland, where Labour has traditionally been strong.

Mr Salmond, a gambler and racing-loving punter who relishes the thrill of the chase, is confident he has Labour and the Better Together pro-Union campaign on the run. “The ground is shifting below their feet,” he says.

The race has certainly tightened. Last week, a poll by YouGov showed the No lead narrowing sharply to only six points (53 to 47 per cent when don’t knows are stripped out).

It prompted concern at Westminster, and in the City the markets were spooked. Investors who had presumed there was no chance of a Yes vote sold off shares in companies that trade on both sides of the border between England and Scotland. Polls this weekend are expected to show Yes getting even closer.

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Kevin Maguire: I'm willing you to vote for us all in Britain instead of Salmond, who wants to be King of Scotland, Daily Record

I’D be gutted, absolutely gutted, if Scotland dumps me. We rub along pretty well and you want to end 300 years of history?

Come on, you can’t be serious.

I’m British and don’t want to be a foreigner when I come to Scotland any more than I want Scots to be foreigners when they go to England or Wales.

We’ve so many ties and been through a lot together so it seems daft to divorce so Alex Salmond can play the big man.

We Geordies have more in common with you Scots than we do with the Surrey stockbroker belt.

I hail from South Shields on Tyneside and grew up reading The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals at Christmas.

I flicked little plastic Subbuteo football players in Celtic and Rangers strips.

I cheered when Archie Gemmill scored that 1978 World Cup goal with that lovely mazy run and gorgeous left-footed finish against Holland.

I wasn’t so happy a few years later, it’s true, narrowly escaping a beating at Wembley by the Tartan Army’s militarised wing.

But we’ll let that pass. Newcastle hoolies chased this Sunderland fan a fair few times so it matters little whether the pursuers were in kilts or black and white stripes.

And I’ll confess when I bumped into Gary McAllister on a train last week I fondly recalled his missed penalty the day England beat Scotland at Wembley in Euro '96.

I’m an England football supporter – though that’s not easy with Roy Hodgson’s dreary excuse for a team – but I still want Scotland to beat Germany tomorrow with Steven Fletcher scoring the winner.

So don’t let Alex Salmond con you into believing us lot don’t care or want to be shot of Scotland.

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Gordon Brown vows to lead Scottish campaign to win more powers for Edinburgh if voters reject independence. Daily Mail

Gordon Brown today vowed to lead the campaign for more powers for Scotland if it rejects independence in this month’s referendum.

The former prime minister, signalling his return to front line politics, said he
would push for further devolution within weeks of the September 18 vote.

Mr Brown is among senior Labour figures being deployed in a final push by the party to prevent its supporters being won over by the Scottish National Party.

With polls suggesting a late swing towards the Yes camp, Mr Brown urged voters not to ‘abandon’ the huge value to Scotland of pooling resources with the rest of the UK in areas such as pensions and healthcare.

He told an audience of activists and politicians at Westminster that he had asked Speaker John Bercow to allow him to lead a debate when the Commons resumes business in October to galvanise cross-party support for reforms.

A pledge of extra tax and legal powers for Holyrood in the event of a rejection of independence in the popular vote has been signed by the leaders of all three main Westminster parties.

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Canada can show David Cameron how to rescue our United Kingdom. Daily Telegraph

Almost 20 years ago, Britain looked on in amazement as it seemed that Canada was about to come apart. Just two weeks before the Quebec referendum, the “no” opinion poll lead had collapsed from 20 points to just 4 points and momentum lay with the mainly French-speaking separatists. Canada’s prime minister, Jean Chrétien, who had kept a low profile given his unpopularity with the Québécois, decided he had no choice but to intervene.

The overdue panic saved the country – just. The “yes” vote was 49.4 per cent.

Now, it is Britain’s turn to be two weeks from a referendum and Canada’s turn to be aghast. Earlier this week, I met Stephen Harper, its current prime minister, who seemed unable to believe that things had come this far. Canada’s struggle involved a French-speaking province with a different religion and history from the rest of the country. But where is Britain’s cultural chasm? “Canada is a country of many, many cultures,” Harper told me, but “the idea of separating English people from Scottish people in Canada is almost inconceivable.”

From abroad, the idea of Scots being so separate from the English as to necessitate the partition of the country must seem absurd. We have the same culture, the same two main languages (English and Polish) and the same world view. If anything, England should have the bigger gripe. A century ago, The Spectator was bemoaning the influence of Scots in London (a problem that persists) but this underscored an important point. The British state is not something foreign, but something Scotland helps to mould. Our country, its achievements and the world wars won together ought to have left something indivisible.

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UK Ministers want answers on independence currency, The Scotsman

TWO UK CABINET Ministers have today challenged the SNP Government to provide answers on currency after Alex Salmond’s top adviser said that his post-independence plans may be blocked.

The SNP Government wants to share the pound in a currency union with the rest of the UK but this has been ruled out by the Coalition Government and Labour opposition. Crawford Beveridge, who heads up Mr Salmond’s fiscal commission working group, admitted in a keynote speech last night that “politics” could see the plans blocked and suggested using the pound without UK agreement - so called sterlingisation - could work as an alternative.

With only a week to go until postal voting starts in the referendum both Chief Secretary Danny Alexander and Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael are now pressing the SNP Government to set out its currency ‘Plan B’.

Mr Alexander said the Scottish Government is ‘fast running out of time’ to come up with a Plan B on currency.

Liberal Democrats at Holyrood have this morning called for an urgent ministerial statement from Alex Salmond on the currency after Mr Beveridge suggested the SNP’s threat to walk away from Scotland’s share of UK debt after a Yes vote “looks like a default and it smells like a default” to credit ratings agencies.

Read the full article here:

Cameron accuses Salmond of being 'desperate' after claims independence will protect the NHS from privatisation Daily Mail.

  The Prime Minister said health is already devolved to Holyrood

  Mr Salmond said NHS cuts in England would be replicated in Scotland

  Scottish Government's spending on private contractors has risen by 25%

David Cameron has accused the First Minister of ‘desperate’ tactics over his claim that separation will protect the NHS from privatisation.

The Prime Minister stressed health is devolved to Holyrood and controversial changes at Westminster cannot be imposed on Scots.

Alex Salmond, who went green bowling in Arbroath with Scotland's Commonwealth medallists today, has argued that NHS budget cuts south of the border would be replicated in Scotland – despite the fact Holyrood has received an extra £1.3billion from Westminster over five years.

He has persisted with the argument despite claims of hypocrisy after it emerged the Scottish Government’s own spending on private contractors rose by almost a quarter last year to more than £80million.

Mr Cameron said: ‘Health is a devolved issue. So the only person who could, if they wanted to, introduce more private provision into the NHS in Scotland is Alex Salmond.

‘I think this is a desperate man recognising the argument is going away from him making a pretty desperate argument.

‘Actually because of the protection on NHS spending that the UK Government has given that we would not cut NHS spending while we have had to make difficult decisions elsewhere - that has actually made sure under the Barnett formula that money is available for Scotland as well.‘So I think that argument does not stack up at all.’

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