Scotch Nationalists Gone Bonkers

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said that the sight of people lining up to vote in the referendum on Scottish independence was 'almost reminiscent of scenes in South Africa'.

Er, well not exactly. Or actually not at all. Britain is not an apartheid state and the Scots are not an oppressed people, just a paranoid people, apparently, who imagine themselves to be harshly victimized.

Then there's former deputy leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, Mr Sillars, who appeared campaigning with Mr. Salmond last week and who warned that oil giant BP would be nationalized "in part or in whole" by an independent Scotland.

Well, we can forget the "or whole," assuming that when Mr. Sillars says "nationalize" he means compulsorily purchase at fair market value, rather than "steal," since BP with annual sales twice Scotland's GDP has a market capitalization of around $150 billion or $30 thousand for every man, woman and child in Scotland, or a bit more than Scotland could actually afford.

As for the "in part," Scotland has no jurisdiction over BP except in Scotland, one of eighty countries in which the firm operates. So all that an independent Scotland might nationalize are BP's Scottish operations, but what would they be getting for their money?

Well just the leases that BP has acquired from the UK Government which allow the company, in return for taxes and royalties, to extract oil from the UK's sea floor. But BP's profit margins are not extravagant — about 5% of sales. So would the Government of Scotland do better in the deep water drilling business?

LOL. So much for that.

How, in reality, an independent Scotland would differ from the largely autonomous kingdom within the UK that it is today is hard to discover. English-born, English-raises and English-resident, former UK ambassador and fanatical Scotch Nationalist Craig Murray, had this to say on his blog the other day:

"How can anybody know what policies an independent Scotland will pursue? Nobody has the right to say what those policies will be."

Which is reminiscent of the company prospectus issued by hucksters at the time of the South Sea Bubble offering shares in:

“A company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.”

For the Scots to claim independence seems premature. Not that that will stop the nationalists from trying. Vote now: find out what you're to get later. That's what's on offer, and as many as 51% in Scotland say they are buying.

So much for democracy.

Related:

CanSpeccy:
The New World Order and the Drive for an Independent Scotland

Nigel Farage on Scottish Independence Referendum: