Alex Salmond has been off pressing the flesh with Madame Clinton in Washington, and amidst his comments on growing the relationship between the US and Scotland (or North Englandshire), he managed to start rambling on about the economy. The most frightening part of his wittering was when he commented that:

“...and in particular I will make the case for Scotland to have the same ability to borrow as other nations... in order to do our bit to inject demand and confidence into the economy.”

To borrow from the esteemed Stephen Fry: O.M arse-mothering G. You wish to allow a bunch of jumped up local councillors the chance to put Scotland into debt? Good grief, these are the people who turned a £40m project into £400m! After the fiasco building the parliament building, you would expect us to trust you with borrowing... Give me strength...

While Wee Eck is possessed of a quick and witty mind, he is not rational. He believes Scotland can and should be independent – ipso facto he is not rational, because rational thought would lead to the conclusion that we benefit more from the Union than we lose. Fiscally, politically, internationally, socially, we benefit from being part of the United Kingdom.

I enjoyed a primary school education in Scotland and a secondary education in England. I have been brought up to feel a part of Britain. I am neither Scottish, nor English, but both – I am British. The idea of a separate Scotland does not sit well with me, and I don’t want to have to choose between the two.

In this case I can only say that I think it is a good thing that he is incredibly unlikely to get his way. Borrowing to boost demand is a short-term measure that fails to address the root cause of the problem – which (to be overly simplistic) was too much borrowing.

Get your SNP/Lib Dem coalition in Edinburgh Council to sort out the trams on budget and on schedule, then maybe we’ll sit down and have a chat, okay?