In the thicket of it with a rambling plot that features Caledonian SAS

Columnist

Friday 8 June 2012

Johann Lamont and Alex Salmond went for a wander in the thickets of semantics yesterday.

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SKETCH IAN BELL

We might have to despatch search parties.

Is the Bank of England independent of government or not? The First Minister says it is, and that its status would preserve us from Westminster's machinations if we achieved our own independence but stuck with sterling. Ms Lamont says this is part of "an incoherent assortment of assertions".

If that's so, retorts Mr Salmond, "What on earth was Gordon Brown boasting about in 1997?" Indeed. Ms Lamont's former leader was once very proud of his decision to grant the bank what he called independence.So what influence would Scotland have over the bank's monetary policy committee? Ms Lamont reckons we would have less than we have now. Mr Salmond says we have no clout now. "It is," says the former economist, "arithmetically impossible to have less say than zero."Come to that, it is tricky to have less than zero interest. Back and forth it goes, this "debate", steadily eroding whatever attention span the electorate had to begin with. The country is in recession again – three cheers for the bank, then –while the Holyrood arguments grow more arcane.As though for light relief, Ruth Davidson has meanwhile been writing her very own disaster movie, Towering Ingratitude. This tells of the terrible punishment liable to be visited on Scotland's oil industry if we cast aside Britain's protection.In this tale, things begin to go wrong when we find ourselves without special forces and security services just as terrorists are preparing to strike. The plot isn't new. Unionists dust it down at least once a decade to demonstrate their favourite fact: Scots can't cope.What isn't clear is whether Scotland would retain a Caledonian SAS. Mr Salmond says we would have "the range of forces required" and points, almost by reflex, to Norway. Ms Davidson fears we would be helpless, reduced to asking Who Cares Who Wins?The Tory leader believes that Mr Salmond has only a "fag packet blueprint for defence". The First Minister returns fire by mentioning the bases her party has closed and the regiments it means to "merge". This movie will run for a while longer, I fear. No-one has managed to write the ending.

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In the thicket of it with a rambling plot that features Caledonian SAS

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