In April last year Grandad raised the problem of competing schemes for the future currency of Scotland – should there be a Yes vote on the approaching referendum. Since then there seems to have been no real progress. True the Scottish Government’s (ie the SNP’s) guide to an independent Scotland covers the subject in its 670 pages. But it reads more like a party manifesto and list of good intentions than a workable plan. The official position being stated in the guide as – “The expert Fiscal Commission Working Group concluded that retaining Sterling as part of a formal Sterling Area with the UK would be the best option for an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK”. But the use of the words expert and the rest of the UK made the sentence much more contentious. Is there also an amateur Fiscal Commission Working Group somewhere? Did the experts really include views of the rest of the UK in this purely Scottish assessment?
Today the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, was in Scotland for his first official visit. And as a result all sides were restating the views for and against the official best option on a future currency and role of the BoE. These views were much the same as they were last April. All that has changed is that the vote deadline has moved that much nearer.
So time for a new approach. One that could unite all the factions behind a well-loved symbol and product of Scotland. A new currency in the form of a shortbread biscuit featuring a West Highland Terrier. The new Westie would clearly prove popular with tourists. It could be sold by the tin full at every tourist stop. Plus climbers, mountain bikers and hill walkers would have the reassurance of knowing that if caught in some sudden storm they could always eat their small change.
Obviously the Westie would be unsuitable for high value purchases but then the banks want everyone to use electronic methods anyway – so no objections there. And the national economy would also benefit from the fact that the Westie would have a limited shelf life. It would loose its value if not used quickly. There would be a constant demand for more fresh Westies to be made – with most of them being exchanged for hard currencies like dollars and euros.
Clearly the Westie is a solution that has not been proposed before. But that means there are no preconceived objections or opposing factions. The bad news is that it as likely to succeed as a Yes vote come September – according to Grandad’s bookmaker.
At the start of 2013 the Met Office predicted that the year was likely to be one of warmest years on record at an estimated 0.57C above the long-term average. By the end of December they were reporting that the mean temperature for 2013 was, in fact, 0.08C below that same average. Outside the Met Office predictions of a cold Winter were shown to be well off target as the UK mean temperature for December came in at 5.7 °C. That’s 1.8 °C above the 1981-2010 average and so the warmest for 25 years.
Jan 2012 – The speed limit on Britain’s motorways will rise to 80mph after ministers judged that motorists driving above the 70mph limit were ‘perfectly decent people’. Former Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the current limit was ‘out of date’ and a higher one would bring economic benefits when introduced in 2013. The rise to 80mph will be the first change to Britain’s speed limit since 1965 … It never happened.