The checkpoint at Carter Bar, near Jedburgh. Picture: Jon Parker Lee
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE: Three days before one of the biggest events in Scottish history a group of pranksters have decided to inject a little light-hearted humour into proceedings by setting up a border control post. (Scotsman)
Giving the gag an authentic look, the jokers erected a barrier and donned high visibility jackets, making the spoof checkpoint look legitimate to anyone approaching in a car. They even included a sign which read ‘Opens 19 Sept 2014’, a reference to the day after the referendum when the results will be announced.
Great!
But the sad thing is that it could well be a reality within a very short time if Scotland votes for separation and if as looks likely we get a pro-immigration party. In that case, EWNI (England+) will have no choice but to create a border control.
When I was at University they had a vote on a new Chancellor. The options were to keep Sir John Harvey Jones or change to Daffy Duck or Winnie Mandela. The student union were confident of their choice Winnie and vigorously campaigned. Nobody campaigned for the other contenders. On the day there was an unheard of turnout and a landslide victory of 95%… for Sir John. I doubt the numbers will be similar but I suspect there is a silent section who will quietly vote for common sense.
Salmond would have impressed more if he’d said ‘it’s going to be tough for a few decades but we’ll come out the other side stronger’.
Yes, whatever the long term prospects, in the short term it will be tough. But he just lied about there being any problems. People can accept hardship, what they cannot accept is lies.
The other shot in the foot was the pound. Almost everyone is intelligent enough to realise that the currency might have to change. If he’d said “we will initially have a Scottish based pound which if we cannot get agreement to share a currency, we will promise to peg the English pound-to-pound.
If he’d been honest like that – then it would have been a none issue. But Salmond made it an issue by trying to dodge it.