The Three Stooges
I am not given to whooping with laughter very often, but last night was one of those times, when I heard that Larry, Curly and Moe, AKA the three Westminster party leaders, were skipping today’s PMQs in favour of a trip to Scotland, clad, no doubt, in new brown trousers. Coming on top of Cameron’s bizarre decision to fly the Saltire over Downing Street, this is another pure gift for ‘Yes”.
Are they coming because they no longer trust their Scottish counterparts to get the job done? Looks like it. Shortly before this bombshell, Sky News showed me on my iPad a clip of that trio, on the stump.
I don’t mean to be cruel here, but if (God forbid) Ruth Davidson was involved in an accident anywhere in Scotland, having left her handbag at home, and was rendered unconscious, it would probably take a good couple of hours before anyone recognised her as the Scots Tory leader. As for Willie Rennie, her LibDem counterpart, his profile is indicative of the fact that his parliamentary party at Holyrood could fit easily round a very small dining table.
For me, the most interesting of the three in terms of body language, not personal profile for she isn’t very well known either, was the Scottish Labour Leader, the very nice Johann Lamont. As she made her pitch for Bitter Together, I couldn’t help feeling that her heart wasn’t quite in it. As thousands of her Scottish party members reject London Labour’s arguments and prepare to turn Scotland into a permanently Tory-free zone, is she beginning to realise that she has pitched her tent in the wrong camp-site?
Quintin Jardine's blog 
Couldn’t agree more Quintin, talking about playing into Mr Salmond’s hands. It will be interesting to see how desperate the three come across today!
When the Indpendance issue was first raised I felt it didn’t affect me one way or the other but now I am not so sure. Most of my pension and also my as yet uncashed pension fund comes from Scotland. George Osborne has promised that I can take the rest in cash but will a Scottish administration countermand that promise or even grab it to help pay the massive costs it is going to incur setting up a totally new civil service. New DVLA, new passport office. Border Force, DWP. the list is almost endless. Having recently funded the setting up of a small retail business I know that the budget is never enough. Alex Salmond fuels his campaign, and let’s face it it his HIS campaign, on pure emotion but can he back it up with sound finanaces or will he want to borrow from the Old Lady. His desire to stay in the sterling zone rather suggests that he will.
Brian. Please be reassured. The savings made by not bearing a proportion of the costs of Trident Renewal, Westminster vanity projects e.g. HS2/3, London Sewage System upgrade, House of Lords modernisation etc etc ad nauseum will more than offset any expenditure you outline and still have billions left over.
The pro-Union economist Professor Brian Ashcroft (husband of former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander) calculated in July last year that had Scotland been independent since 1981 it would by now have a surplus of £68 billion or as the Financial Times stated unequivocally in February of this year .An Independent Scotland could expect to start with healthier state finances than the rest of the UK.
Hope that eases your troubled mind.
Oh I see you’ve also been hoodwinked by the subliminal message exuded by the media by constantly broadcasting Alex Salmond Alex Salmond Alex Salmond repeatedly into believing that Yes Scotland is all about Westminster’s nemesis.
Nope Yes Scotland is an umbrella of at least 30 real grass-roots organisations