Germany comes to the rescue

When was the last time that the British political establishment welcomed major economic advice from Germany over what it claims to be its own affairs? The most recent information we have about PM Cameron's views of any German role in the Scottish independence debate is from today's Glasgow Herald's article which states that 'it emerged at a private meeting earlier this week that Mr Cameron issued what one (attender) described as 'a call to arms' evoking the defeat of Hitler as he addressed more than 100 business leaders.'

But things have changed. Today Germany stands for austerity (in other EU countries) and a strong euro (for German exports.) And it is the fear that anti-austerity, not to mention an attack on inequality, that could emerge from an independent Scotland, that gives rise to the recent comments from Berlin. We can be sure that Cameron was consulted, even that he perhaps initiated the most recent intervention from Germany into Scottish and Britsh history. 

In the Deutsche Bank report, David Folkerts-Landau, the bank's chief economist, said;  'a Yes vote for Scottish independence on Thursday would go down in history as a political and economic mistake as large as Winston Churchill's decision in 1925 to return the pound to the Gold Standard or the failure of the Federal Reserve to provide sufficient liquidity to the US banking system, which we now know brought on the Great Depression in the US.

These decisions, well-intentioned as they were, contributed to years of depression and suffering and could have been avoided had alternative decisions been taken.' 

Indeed the depression in Germany provided a major impulse to Nazi progress. Vote No in Scotland ... to defeat Hitler, twice! 

This would all be laughable if it were not tragic. It is worth noting however just how important for both main classes in society that real votes can be. And how our rulers call on aid from all their allies when substantial questions are at stake, tossing aside their own 'principles' of sovreignty and democracy. It is for the Scottish people to decide, the main party leaders clamour, while building their now international avalanche of fear designed to choke off hope and self determination in Scotland. How different all this is to Britain's general elections in the last 35 years, where precisely no issues of who has the wealth and who has the power have been addressed as the big party consensus on austerity has become embedded as a poisonous type of common sense. Yet how remarkable is the courage of those Scots, still standing firm against the ruling class sunami. Half the nation hold out. All they have is their own intelligence, their own resolution and their support of each other. They are truly a potentially great leadership for a new nation.