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February 19, 2014updated 11 Jan 2016 2:39pm

Alex Salmond is going to be smoked out in the independence debate

By Spear's

Author: by Stephen Hill

There is an unpleasant fish invading the pure waters of Scotland, polluting the atmosphere and creating a bad stink, a very unpleasant smell somewhere between foul fish and utter absurdity… It is called the Salmond.

Someone or other is out to catch this fish on the fly and gaffe it and be rid of it for the benefit of all true Scotsmen. First, the governor of the Bank of England says that if the Salmond wants an independent Scotland he’d better find a currency and a central bank to go with it.

The Salmond’s problem is that he doesn’t have either, and even if he had an answer over the currency question, the governor would rather like to have our £43 billion back for bailing out the utterly corrupt, bust and dreadful Royal Bank of Scotland, for starters.

Read more on the economy from Stephen Hill

Then up jumps Jose Barroso, an unelected EU official from another bankrupt nation, and makes it clear he doesn’t want an impoverished bunch of spongers dressed in kilts trying to apply to the equally bust EU. What neither of them realise is that the grain of history is on the other side of the tracks.

Let me explain: the more a bunch of unelected, tax-free-salaried and pensioned bureaucrats try to seize undemocratic power by stealth and deception, across a whole sub-continent, the more they create the idea among the regions that secession might be a good idea. So along come the Catalonian, Basque and Bavarian secessionists et al, followed now by this foul-smelling Salmond.

But nationalist movements are rising too, back towards nation states and accountability of elected representatives – countries with their own currencies, central banks and fiscal accountability, and responsibility. How else to explain the relentless rise of UKIP, Le Front National and Alternatives fur Deutschland? Not to mention the anger in Holland, among the German youth and now in Italy?

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Given that the EU’s structure is itself destined for collapse, who in their right minds would welcome a foul-smelling fish clambering aboard?

The Salmond will take some gaffing yet, but essentially it has leapt at the wrong time and up the wrong river, and should be muzzled before it destroys the world’s most enduring monetary, fiscal and defence union – a union which today is leading the global recovery by obeying the time-honoured practice of learning to pay its way in the world.

Would that the Scottish spongers, who receive on average £1,600 pa more social security than the English, realise where their bread is buttered. Now, bread and butter go rather nicely with smoked Salmond…

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