Effing Tories (and their Labour fellow travellers) fire the big guns

The Royal Bank of Scotland (owned by us) just decided - along with BP, John Lewis, Lloyds and Standard Life - to bomb the Scottish Independence campaign. Surprisingly perhaps they congregated the announcement of their 'risk reduction' measures on the day that PM Cameron's heart bled in public at the thought of life without the Scots. The multi £billion financial dinosaurs, Standard Life, RBS and Lloyds, need to huddle round the old lady of Threadneedle Street for calm and comfort. Note; apparently the banks and finance companies cannot get Bank of England backing when they fail (again) if they moved to Newcastle, Leeds or Manchester. Meanwhile BP is worried that if it held its assets in Scottish pounds or whatever currency the Scots choose they might see them devalue! Lucky for them that their cash is held mostly in offshore tax havens then. So they have no reason to worry. Perhaps they are more scared of some higher Scottish taxes on their North Sea profits - but if they are they dare not say so. And John Lewis are frightened that their prices will have to rise in an independent Scotland. There's a thing. (But you can get a great Chianti in Lidl these days!)

Salmond is right when he says that these orchestrated moves are designed as frighteners. But that is not enough. Nor is the response of the SNPs finance minister John Swinney. (He argues that Scotland WOULD get currency union, thereby dealing with the worries of the big banks and companies and the SNP had always been ready to 'make concessions' so that tax and spend policies could be agreed with the Bank of England.) 

Whats going on? The unelected Tory leadership and their never elected brothers and sisters in the City of London have decided to stop the Scots' movement towards independence in its tracks. Nobody can deny this is a powerful cabal - the most powerful in Britain. The opposition to independence is coming from the very centre of those who now rule. They are afraid that an independent Scotland could get loose from and then, in time, even challenge their control in the rest of the UK. The yes campaign in Scotland are leading a political revolution. It is a moment parallel to the first steps in the 1948 foundation of the welfare state. 

The argument about independence in Scotland has already shifted onto the question of 'what sort of country do we want to be?' rather than the technicalities of financial structures. The current barrage is a cynical and conscious attempt to push the argument backwards. The establishment threaten: If you go for your own democratic freedom then you will pay! Big banks and companies are lined up in the fight. The yes campaign needs a response. 

The yes campaign should say, we got here because we are tired of you pushing us around. We are turning our back on rulers we don't know and that we never voted for - whether they happen to be in Westminster OR in the City of London, a bunch of crooks, by the way, that nearly destroyed us all. Seven years later we are still paying for the banks and the City's greed and corruption. There are millions of us. Maybe a whole country. If you try to stop or wreck our democratic decision then it is you who will pay! We will set up our own Scottish Peoples Bank, based on our reserves and our latent wealth (including in the North Sea). BP will pay fair taxes, keep its nose out of Scottish democracy or find that they have some problems with their franchises. There are plenty of countries and companies looking for high grade oil in the world today. And as for John Lewis, we'll see what the partners who do the work for you say about your intervention into Scottish politics. Meanwhile we've heard on the internet that there's a good Chianti to be had in Lidl for under £6!

A central part of the yes campaign's struggle is for a real democracy. The Scottish people have taken hold of politics and their own destiny like nothing we have seen in Britain since the end of WW2. A few failed bankers and the odd oil billionaire need to learn that there are much more powerful forces in the world than their self appointed authority and corrupt self interest.