Glasgow’s graffiti writers are up to date as usual:
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To paraphrase an old friend who I haven’t see for too long
Fannies are warm and inviting, two qualities that Boris Johnson is lacking
For anyone from the US who doesn’t already know, fanny = cunt
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Replace Remain and Leave with Trump and Sane, and you would have US politics. IOW, Putin’s plan is working to perfection. Now extend this to the EU, as is apparently happening, and it is his wet dream come to life.
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That makes more sense. Here a fanny is a light way to reference the buttockal region (ie, fanny pack)
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The currency problem would be a cakewalk compared to the issue of what a physical border would look like.
It wouldn’t have the same kind of religious sectarianism as Ireland, but the logistics are still wild.
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Now you know why we laugh so hard at “fanny packs.”
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As I recall, the worries about the physical border were second to the worries about currency in the first independence referendum, and rightly so. Things have changed radically since then, though, and prospect of a hard Brexit may make both concerns less of an issue than they were previously.
An independent Scotland would likely use the Euro as its currency and would have to have a hard border with a post-Brexit UK, but would also continue trading with their neighbours to the south under whatever trade agreement was negotiated between the EU and the UK (much better than Scotland negotiating on its own). I’d hope they’d also allow some free movement of people across the border so that those who didn’t want to remain with the sinking ship of Little England could move north and contribute to the new Scottish republic.
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That’s not being suggested by many people, and for good reason.
An Independent Scotland couldn’t join the Euro unless it adopted its own currency first, as the rules for adopting the Euro state that you’ve got to join ERM2 for two years first. Scotland couldn’t force the rest of the UK to join if it was still using the £, and joining after setting up a new currency would incur the costs of going through a currency transition twice.
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Interesting. That would be a serious challenge and there would be serious costs. Perhaps they could peg a standalone Scottish currency to the GBP for a couple of years post-independence to mitigate things.
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Pre-Hard BREXIT:
San Francisco decides to join Oregon. Annoying, but doable. Basic integrated economy and customs almost identical.
Post hard BREXIT:
Random-sized bottom half of California decides to join Mexico. Border completely changed, all economics immediately and chaotically un-integrated. People crying at Starbucks, National Guard lighting cars on fire on the highway, total civilizational breakdown (probably not this bad, of course, but bad.)
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A new currency would seem to be the beat course of action long term as well. While there is no political unification in Europe, joining the Euro is fundamentally dangerous for any country. The crash of 2008 demonstrated this clearly. Countries that has their own currencies were able to adjust and recover much faster than those that were stuck in the Euro, which had to undergo horrific “internal devaluation”.
A new, independent currency for a new, independent nation would work out best. Interest rates could be set at appropriate level for the national economy, and exchange rates would find their level.
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2008 changed that, though. I doubt that the EU would neglect its due diligence like it did with Greece before bringing deciding to whether or not to let Scotland into the Euro (I also doubt that Scotland would be inclined to lie about its fiscal state like Greece did). Either way, Euro or the standalone Great Scot (forex abbreviation “GS!”), the currency concern won’t be as big a factor in the next Scottish independence vote as it was last time, as long as Scotland remains in the EU and what remains of the UK doesn’t.
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Unless there’s sane leadership that calls for a second referendum on its way in, hard Brexit is eventually going to be the result. Scottish separatism and people crying in coffee shops are to be expected, but so will be relief for those in the UK who want their nation-state to remain in the EU. One hopes the relative dearth of firearms in the UK, combined with a legitimate referendum and an orderly transition of governance and relatively clear existing demarcation points, would reduce the chance of total civilisational breakdown.
I tend to lean away from separatist “solutions”, especially those driven by ethnic nationalism. These days they only benefit Putin and other fascists. Scotland’s situation is unusual in that it would be driven as much by the economic necessities forced on it by the British Tories and fascists to the south.
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It was sarcasm, friend.
Some folks’ consistent comments convey the mentality that they don’t give a fuck about anyone residing anywhere aside from where they personally live, because they are just soooo much better than everyone else on the planet.
It’s a seriously shitty, antisocial attitude to have about other human beings.
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The trouble with the Euro isn’t just that Greece was in a mess before joining- it’s baked into the structure of the politics and the currency.
The US dollar works as one currency for the whole of the USA because of several factors that simply aren’t present in Europe:
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It has a Federal government that’s willing to transfer money to the poorer states on an ongoing basis, through mechanisms like Social Security and the unified military-industrial-congressional complex. The EU has no similar counter-cyclical mechanisms.
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The USA has an incredibly highly mobile population. There are parts of New England that used to be densely farmed, and have now been reclaimed by forests, because all their residents headed west. The EU has cultural ,linguistic and political barriers preventing the same situation happening here. It would not be politically acceptable for Southern Italy or Greece to become as depopulated as Nebraska.
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The USA has a much more integrated economy, with a national minimum wage and chains with continent-wide prices. European countries are still different from one another, and much of the east is still much less wealthy, as a consequence of 1992 and all that.
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The USA doesn’t have fiscal rules that almost completely forbid deficit spending in the face of a recession. The “Fiscal compact” is a Neoliberal straitjacket that the ECB has placed on the entire continent because of one member state’s self-serving historical aversion to the slightest bit of inflation.
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I wonder which candidates are most likely to end with a successful no confidence vote?
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What a horrible, dickheaded thing to say.
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They may have exaggerated a bit.
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Yeah, but it’s actually the best political comment I’ve read so far.
This timeline is smeggin’ weird… On the other hand, truth is stranger than satire right now, so why not?
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