A few days ago I posted a piece which argued that Nicola Sturgeon knew Scottish independence would be a disaster for the poorest in her country. Yet she persisted with the policy because, I suggested, she hated the English far more than she loved Scotland.
Today comes a delicious reminder of Ms Sturgeon's very special qualities. She told Sky News's Sophie Ridge that iScotland would "keep the pound". She said sterling is "our currency as much as it is the currency of anywhere else". This is an informative statement.
While true up to a point (although it is also true of any other currency you care to name, including the Azerbaijani manat), it ignores that iScotland would have no central bank and no lender of last resort. It also ignores the fact that the Bank of England would no longer be taking into account economic events in Scotland when setting interest rates. It isn't an exaggeration to say that using the pound post-Independence would actually make Scotland less independent rather than more, because Scotland would lose such influence it currently has over monetary policy.
It would also make it harder and more expensive for Scotland to borrow money on the international markets; and as we've already discussed, Scotland is going to have to borrow an awful lot of money if it leaves the Union.
But there's more. I noted in previous posts that Ms Sturgeon is nothing if not well-informed. She knows all these things. She knows what she says is misleading to the point of dishonesty. She also chooses to use words which encourage grievance. Notice that she says sterling is "our" currency, as if all Scots could be subsumed within the possessive, and as if anyone had proposed to take it from them (no-one has: they've merely pointed out that sterling is the currency of the Union, and any country choosing to leave it will fall beyond the remit of the Bank of England's powers of assistance).
There's an interesting comparison here with Donald Trump. Sturgeon tells her supporters things she knows aren't true. She uses language to try and stir up their feelings. So far so similar. The National, the SNP's free-sheet, told its supporters today that the GERS figures, which show with pitiless clarity how stuffed iScotland would be, are unreliable. Scotland must move beyond GERS.
GERS are the Scottish government's own figures.
The principal difference however between La Sturgeon and the US president, liars and manipulators both, is that Donald Trump genuinely if mistakenly believes his policies are for the benefit of his countrymen. Nicola Sturgeon knows they are not.
Give me Trump over Sturgeon any day.
There is a very special ignominy reserved for Ms Sturgeon. In one scenario she fails to take Scotland out of the Union and retires from the field defeated. In another, more dire, she succeeds. It is a disaster, and she lives to be reviled. If it happens, it will be richly deserved.
