Hamish MacDonell: Chancellor's assault has touched a raw nerve
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When George Osborne was given control over the strategy to fight the Scottish Nationalists, it was seen by many as the beginning of a battle which would pit two of the best political operators in the country against one another: Mr Osborne and Alex Salmond. But, for the past year and a half, the Scottish First Minister has had the field pretty much to himself. The Chancellor has had his hands full elsewhere.
Last night's assault on one of the fundamental principles of Mr Salmond's vision of an independent Scotland showed that Mr Osborne has, at last, decided to join the fight.
The Nationalists are likely to argue that Mr Osborne has no authority to tell an independent Scotland it cannot stay in a sterling zone – and they may well be right. Decisions of that nature are probably the preserve of the Bank of England. But that is unlikely to deflect from the core of the Chancellor's argument.
Mr Osborne articulated something that has been gnawing at the Nationalist cause for the past few months: the suspicion that an independent Scotland tied to sterling wouldn't really be independent at all. If interest rates are set by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England and monetary policy is likewise dictated by London, probably with an eye primarily to the economy of the South-east of England, what independence would Scotland have?
But more than that, the euro crisis has shown up the fundamental weakness of fiscal union without political union, as countries across Europe have suffered because they have a currency which is overvalued for their needs and they are unable to print quantities of their own currency to keep their economies afloat. Mr Osborne's foray into the independence debate may be dismissed automatically by Mr Salmond, but it may well kick-start a public debate about one of the core assumptions of Scottish independence. Mr Salmond's vision has always been more about the heart than the head. Recently though, he has tried to balance up the argument by confronting such thorny issues as the currency.
But this is where he has weaknesses, and the unionists know it. The Nationalists will never admit it, but Mr Osborne touched a raw nerve last night.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments