Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 14 August 2014.
Alex Salmond
First Minister of Scotland, Leader, Scottish National Party
We are advocating a currency union because we think that it is in the best interests of the people of Scotland. A Majority in that survey also believe that that is what will happen after independence, and they are right to believe that, because we know the consequences of the unionist parties attempting to keep all the financial assets of the UK for themselves. If they keep the financial assets, they end up with the liabilities—they end up saddled with the UK’s debt.
It is incredible, as we discussed last week, to believe that George Osborne or Ed Balls wants to say, “We are not going to take the up to £5 billion a year that the Scottish Government has responsibly said it will finance”—our share of the UK debt—“We don’t want that. We will saddle it on English taxpayers.” That is the inevitable consequence of the refusal to countenance the currency union.
Then we come to where people will say the decisions should lie. I thought that, when we had Jackson Carlaw manning the barricades and the comment from Ruth Davidson—which we all know, incidentally, was that she would support a currency union if it was in the best interests of the Scottish people—we had an acknowledgement from the Conservatives that they regarded the vote and verdict of the Scottish people as important.
I say to Ruth Davidson that, on September 18, if people in Scotland vote for what is in the white paper and the proposals to keep the pound, that is exactly what will happen and any Scottish politician who does not recognise the sovereign choice of the Scottish people will pay a heavy price. Incidentally, that is something that the Conservatives are long used to in political campaigns in Scotland.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A document issued by the Government laying out its policy, or proposed policy, on a topic of current concern.Although a white paper may occasion consultation as to the details of new legislation, it does signify a clear intention on the part of a government to pass new law. This is a contrast with green papers, which are issued less frequently, are more open-ended and may merely propose a strategy to be implemented in the details of other legislation.
More from wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
