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Scotland woke and breathed a quiet sigh of relief this morning after Alex Salmond’s proposed independence day came and went without them having to actually become independent.
Salmond proposed the 24th of March 2016 as ‘Independence Day’ and pledged that there would be bumper tax revenues from oil to pay for all that super extra spending he promised.
As things turned out, had Scotland voted yes they would have had the largest deficit in the OECD, so everyone is quietly acknowledging they dodged a bullet on that one, and a jolly good thing it was too.
Figures released last week showed that predicted oil revenues of £7.5bn would in fact have been £0, which as optimistic overestimates go was a pretty good one.
By a curious coincidence, the ’45’ badge still worn on some nationalist social media accounts would also have been the number of billions needed in additional spending cuts over the next five years.
Experts predict Nationalists who loudly argued that pooling risk in a wider Union against such events was both stupid and unnecessary will take this story really badly and the comments thread will be a hoot.
The National, a pro-independence newspaper owned by a company based in Buckinghamshire, and Wings Over Scotland, the leading pro-indie blog run from Wiltshire, pledged to continue their campaign for Scotland to leave, largely as it’s not them who’ll have to live with the consequences.
Supporters of independence have pledged to continue campaign for a free Scotland, but if push come to shove they’ll vote no and then tell all their friends they voted YES – just like they did last time.
