How Sterling Is It?

[Oddquine]

as I said "any rational persons decision"

Why does worrying about nothing much make someone rational? I assume you didn't read the link in my previous post. That is rational thought.

[macadamia]

Norway are a bit clever. Their oil (its extraction, delivery, storage and consumption) is generally used to benefit Norway, and its contribution to the national coffers is completely and utterly within the control of the Norwegian government.

Would that be the case with an Independent Scotland?

[piratelassie]

Thanks Oddquine for this informative post.

As I have already said......a lot of kerfuffle over nothing . If the rUK doesn't want a currency agreement which suits both of us......then we will just use sterling anyway until we decide otherwise. Monetary policy is not the same as fiscal policy, you know. We already live under UK monetary policy, in which we have no say or representation......so the change would be what, exactly?.......bar we will have, at last, the fiscal tools to deal adequately with a monetary policy which favours the South of England and London.

I can do quotes as well.....but from the Herald, not the Hootsmon....and from a respected journalist, Ian Bell, not a failed Labour Westminster MP who has always been paranoid about the SNP and was chairman of the "Labour Vote NO Campaign for the 1979 referendum.

The full article is here......http://www.heraldscotland.com/commen...iable.20893521

But a quote for those who can't be bothered checking it out.

That, of course, is the political heart of the matter. Contrary to much of the propaganda, Scotland is a prize worth keeping. It is not some broke little country incapable of contemplating independence. It has assets that are valued, and not all of those are in the North Sea. A Chancellor who believed his accounts would be improved by Scotland's departure from the UK would not be going to the trouble to which Mr Osborne has gone.


The argument cuts both ways. The Chancellor's threats are clear evidence that an independent Scotland is viable. Even a currency union would work, if that's your taste, given goodwill on both sides. Mr Osborne has just made it clear that the prize is too valuable to let such a sentimental notion get in his way.


Before everyone gets too carried away by thoughts of the Chancellor's iron heel, Scotland twinned with Cyprus, or the possible future value of the groats in Scottish pockets, a few pertinent facts are worth remembering. Comparisons between Scotland and Norway are far from exact, sadly for the SNP, but they are far from fanciful.


Here we have a small, oil-rich, north European country with its own currency. It is not a member of the EU, but does most of its trade with the union. It is part of the European economic area and a member of the European Free Trade Association. A large part of its economy depends on a volatile trade in mineral resources, but somehow it struggles along. Norway, for the benefit of clarity, is not a fantasy country.


If you chose to believe the No campaign in which Mr Osborne is a significant player – though generally kept out of sight, for obvious reasons – Norway should not exist. It should certainly not survive. The idea that it could survive and prosper, as Norway has a habit of doing, should be beyond the bounds of credibility.

[equusdriving]

Why does worrying about nothing much make someone rational?

and voting for Independence regardless of having no answers to such important issues, as what money we will be using (amongst many others) is rational?

I assume you didn't read the link in my previous post.

funnily enough I value my time far too much to follow propaganda spouted by people who could make such astonishingly blinkered statements

[Oddquine]

Norway are a bit clever. Their oil (its extraction, delivery, storage and consumption) is generally used to benefit Norway, and its contribution to the national coffers is completely and utterly within the control of the Norwegian government.

Would that be the case with an Independent Scotland?

That would be the intentions......to set up an oil fund on the same lines...and I would hazard a guess it would be the intentions of any Scottish Government of any colour. Certainly there is not as much oil as there was in the 1970s..as we are continually being told......but there is still a substantial amount.......and I'm confident that a Scottish Government..any Scottish Government......could do much more with it than use it to fund discounts to sell off the family silver to benefit private companies and a minority of individuals, and to pay the welfare benefits for people deliberately thrown out of work as has been happening since the oiil started bringing in income.

Such a waste of finite resources.

[equusdriving]

That would be the intentions......to set up an oil fund on the same lines...and I would hazard a guess it would be the intentions of any Scottish Government of any colour. Certainly there is not as much oil as there was in the 1970s..as we are continually being told......but there is still a substantial amount.......and I'm confident that a Scottish Government..any Scottish Government......could do much more with it than use it to fund discounts to sell off the family silver to benefit private companies and a minority of individuals, and to pay the welfare benefits for people deliberately thrown out of work as has been happening since the oiil started bringing in income.

Such a waste of finite resources.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9794316/Alex-Salmond-warning-over-Shetland-oil-after-independence.html

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/366081/Dwindling-oil-cash-means-grim-future-after-independence
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086465/Scottish-independence-referendum-What-Scotland-did-alone.html

[ducati]

Norway are a bit clever. Their oil (its extraction, delivery, storage and consumption) is generally used to benefit Norway, and its contribution to the national coffers is completely and utterly within the control of the Norwegian government.

Would that be the case with an Independent Scotland?

You also have to bear in mind Norway had the mother of all bail-outs after the end of WW11 that kickstarted her economy.

[tonkatojo]

Shillings, Roman coins.... LOL

What could be wrong with the good ole "groat"..

[Oddquine]

You also have to bear in mind Norway had the mother of all bail-outs after the end of WW11 that kickstarted her economy.

And would that have been a bigger mother of all bailouts than we got, out of interest. We got $3.2 billion, the largest share of the $13.2 billion of Marshall Aid of any of the 10 European nations.

France got $2.7 billion, $1.5 billion went to Italy, $1.4 billion to the post WWII Germany.which left $4.4 billion to be shared among the remaining 6 countries, which included Norway.

Our Government, being the economic numpties they still continually show they are......made by far the least effective use of Marshall Aid of the 10 countries...being well bottom of the "Economic Growth during the Marshall Plan Years" table ! Quelle surprise!

Just shows that the average (and they are very average) UK politicans are economic numpties...(or chancers, you choose)...so you are going to sneer at the position of the Norwegian economy in 2013 because they got a bail-out between 1948 and 1951, when you appear to happily accept that at the same time and in the same circumstances as Norway was growing their economy....the UK Government decided the economy wasn't as important as spending much of the bail-out to have a go at continuing its Imperial past. They succeeded, and passed on the legacy of perceived world importance to all their successors...and we suffer because in 2013, that is still where we are.........in a crap economy UK with delusions of grandeur, which is like an impoverished aristocrat, and has no income to support their lifestyle......unless they tread on the necks of the serfs and increase their income from the poor.

And then people wonder why so many of us want to get out from under the UK thumb?

[Oddquine]

What could be wrong with the good ole "groat"..

Quite like the idea of a Scottish groat! Would be a shade different from the plethora of (some capital letter denoting a country) pounds and (some capital letter denoting a country) dollars.

[Alrock]

What could be wrong with the good ole "groat"..

Would that make the Groatie Buckie legal tender?

[squidge]

There is an interesting article on National Collective about currency choices http://nationalcollective.com/2013/0...rency-question

It is easy to read and written by a Catherine Schenk and Duncan Ross. Catherine is a Professor of Economic Hostory and author and Duncan is Senior Lecturer in Economic History at Glasgow University.

In light of the gobbledegook which is discussed on this issue I was pleased to see National Collective reappearing with an easily digestible article.

[ducati]

And would that have been a bigger mother of all bailouts than we got, out of interest. We got $3.2 billion, the largest share of the $13.2 billion of Marshall Aid of any of the 10 European nations.

France got $2.7 billion, $1.5 billion went to Italy, $1.4 billion to the post WWII Germany.which left $4.4 billion to be shared among the remaining 6 countries, which included Norway.

Our Government, being the economic numpties they still continually show they are......made by far the least effective use of Marshall Aid of the 10 countries...being well bottom of the "Economic Growth during the Marshall Plan Years" table ! Quelle surprise!

Just shows that the average (and they are very average) UK politicans are economic numpties...(or chancers, you choose)...so you are going to sneer at the position of the Norwegian economy in 2013 because they got a bail-out between 1948 and 1951, when you appear to happily accept that at the same time and in the same circumstances as Norway was growing their economy....the UK Government decided the economy wasn't as important as spending much of the bail-out to have a go at continuing its Imperial past. They succeeded, and passed on the legacy of perceived world importance to all their successors...and we suffer because in 2013, that is still where we are.........in a crap economy UK with delusions of grandeur, which is like an impoverished aristocrat, and has no income to support their lifestyle......unless they tread on the necks of the serfs and increase their income from the poor.

And then people wonder why so many of us want to get out from under the UK thumb?

I wasn't sneering just pointing it out.