Saltire

Sterling is an internationally traded currency. At the point of independence we would retain our share of Sterling and can decide whether to retain it or covert it to any number of other internationally traded currencies or our own. We can have a central bank or a currency board managing a basket of currencies/ gold reserves. The UK can't prevent us from using the pound but we would be tied in to the RUK rates of interest etc until such times as we move to another currency.

On a serious note, recent media interviews including two on TV today have shown that Daft Willie is actually Dangerous Willie. His insistence that even if there is a majority in the SP in favour of Independence, he will oppose a referendum shows that he and his tinpot gang are neither liberal nor democrats. Of course, he is entitled to campaign for a position where there is not a majority in favour of independence but stating that if he wins only in North East Fife that gives him a mandate to say no to a referendum is extremely dangerous for democracy. It is unlikely he will get 50% of the votes in his constituency if he wins. I think we should arrange a crowd funder to buy him a dictionary and highlight the words liberal and democrat.

Hey Daft Willie, did you get that bogie out of your nose?

There is a difference between part-time players training two nights a week and part-time players who train two or three days a week with the rest of the squad , which was the Ian McCall model. That would need to be available for this to work.

I always find statements like this somewhat puzzling. As someone who has worked for multinational businesses all my working life (pharmaceuticals/fine chemicals, oil and gas engineering and utilities) I have dealt with customers and suppliers on every continent. If you have goods or services that are of the right quality and price, there are very few real borders. So, whilst the “newly independent" UK roared about how the EU would want to trade with it (which is true), suddenly an independent Scotland will be "banned" from trading with RUK? Is this a real threat with echoes of the English Alien Act of 1705, or empty rhetoric? I think it’s very much the latter. If our products, resources, and services at least stay at current levels of quality or maintain USPs like our whisky and tourism and a long list of other sectors, there will still be customers. Control of our economic levers will act as enablers not blockers to growth. More importantly, this can be growth in a social democratic landscape rather than moral decline under a hard right conservative UK with alarming tendencies toward libertarianism, the removal of necessary regulation and contempt for human rights.

Sarwar is as fake as a £6 note with his Mr Reasonable act.

Wow, Lorna Slater appeared to have little strategic nous on the Sunday show this morning. Pitching for unionist votes and downplaying independence when their big chance to get more seats is to tempt SNP constituency voters on the list vote. Also, the nonsense of "fully costed" statements on policy around complex engineering projects lacks credibility. I'm fully behind net zero but it can't happen overnight, and a sensible transition is required. I'm sure the Greens can help to raise the profile of net zero, but not if they turn off pro-indy voters and lose seats.

I'm all for giving the manager time to bed in his plan, but other than the victories at Dundee and Elgin, it's hard to see any indications of how we get a win. The way we're setting up lets the opposition dictate the play in every game. He's inherited a poorly balanced squad with no clear system that fits the players we have. We just need to hang on by the skin of our teeth and hope for good recruitment in the summer.

He's losing the plot more and more. After May's election and the legislation for an independence referendum he’ll be exhausted, will he be able to demonstrate indy fatigue ability?

It's a cross, it's not a single transferrable vote.

There are always careers outside politics for former politicians, viz adopting a cartoon persona!

Scottish elections: Sturgeon's SNP set for majority but Salmond's Alba unlikely to get single seat - Sky News poll | Politics News | Sky News

A forensic scientist inserts a cranial probe to work out what's going on in there! Daft Willie, meanwhile, is conducting a thought experiment.

I watched the Tory PPB after Scotland Today, but I thought I was watching a comedy movie.

This link still works for those who want to read the article.

Does Dr Seuss have a new book out?

Remember when politicians used to kiss babies? This is Daft Willie in 2017 trying to ram home his message. Or is he feeling a bit horny?????

Steady but not spectatcular. She will be the most fatigued of the leader by miles.

Wiilie Rennie is clueless about what BiFab actually manufactured or its capacity. What a waste of space.

Wee Dougie ranting about not being willing to work together with other parties!!!!!!

The usual "balance" of views from the BBC audience! Did they use the same selection approach as Question Time?

Whilst I'm not a fan of the Alba Party, at all, there are people who have joined with a lifetime of dedication to the independence cause. I question their judgement, but not their passion. For the younger posters on here, it wasn't always like this. There were long, long years of the SNP only winning a handful of seats in the northeast and Western lsles. Elsewhere it often trailed in a poor fourth placed and we wondered when the breakthrough would come in most constituencies. Many in the Alba Party, including Salmond got Scotland to this position. There needs to be a coming together again in the future, let’s not make that harder than it needs to be.

It's the new politicians' chess top trump. Apparently there's one of Douglas Ross bashing the bishop.

I think there are four credible outcomes from the Alba Experiment. In no particular order: 1/ Tank spectacularly and have no impact on the outcome of the election. (business as usual and onto IndyRef with the strongest case). 2/ Take enough second votes to split the Indy vote three ways and allow a unionist majority via the list. (a disaster and the next referendum could well be a generation away). 3/ Take enough list seats to hold the balance of power. (Salmond as the power broker weakens the case for Indy and will be a huge distraction). 4/ Take double figures of list seats (gaming the system with a "super majority" and undermine the case).

So far, the only person I know who's going to vote for the Alba Party, is Campbell Martin (former MSP, I was his election agent back in the day). Every other friend who is either an SNP member, or voter is firmly in the "wouldn't touch the new Salmond with a barge pole" camp. I'm sure there wil be some people I know who will vote Alba Party, but I suspect not many.