Alex Salmond hits back over currency union

Scotland's first minister has accused the three main UK parties of "bluff, bluster and bullying" over their opposition to a currency union with an independent Scotland.

Alex Salmond was speaking after UK Chancellor George Osborne said a vote for Scottish independence would mean walking away from the pound.

Mr Osborne's position was echoed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

But Mr Salmond said the move would "backfire spectacularly".

Well I wondered when Salmond would offer a retort to Osborne’s speech and once again he’s adopted this approach of deflecting, as he’s decided not to answer the tough question of what Scotland would actually do if they couldn’t keep the pound and instead moaned about being bullied.

He also said the move of not allowing Scotland to keep the pound would backfire, but didn’t really explain how that would happen; also I’m curious to know if Salmond has spotted the irony in his comments.

He said that the three main parties were full of bluff, bluster and bullying, yet you could accuse him of exactly the same.

Salmond keeps saying that if he doesn’t get a currency union Scotland won’t pay its share of the UK debt, which could be seen as trying to bully the parties to the negotiating table, and he point blank refuses to say what he would do if he can’t keep the pound and seems to think, despite the growing body of evidence suggesting otherwise, that everything will work out, which could be seen as bluff and bluster.