Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that "common sense will take precedence over campaign tactics" when the Scottish people vote for independence in September.
In response to the UK Chancellor's comments last week that an independent Scotland would no longer be part of a monetary union with the UK, she said: "What George Osborne says in the heat of the campaign will be very different to what he says if Scotland votes Yes, because it's in the interest of both Scotland and the rest of the UK to maintain a currency union.
"George Osborne wants people to vote No, but once Scotland votes Yes, common sense will take precedence over campaign tactics."
The Yes campaign was apparently dealt a further blow over the weekend when European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for an independent Scotland to join the European Union.
But speaking at a public question and answer session in Dunblane today, Ms Sturgeon said: "Scotland is part of the European Union, we've been part of it for 40 years. Europe and the EU is an organisation which has existed to expand, not contract.
"There's not a single member state that says it will try to block Scotland being a continuing member."
She was speaking at one of a series of town hall events taking place across Scotland in the run-up to the referendum on September 18.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article