Cheat sheet: George Osborne’s speech on the pound

‘If Scotland walks away from the UK, it walks away from the pound’, the Chancellor said this morning. In a speech aiming to blow a hole in the SNP’s campaign, George Osborne has set out why sharing the pound isn’t on the cards for an independent Scotland. Here are the key points from his speech, the reactions and why a currency union with the rest of the UK won’t happen

1. The Tories, Lib Dems and Labour have united on a technical fight
It’s very rare that George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander can find something to agree on. The fact they’ve publicly united against a currency union with Scotland shows how pressing the matter is.

Following on from a speech by Mark Carney two weeks ago on the perils of any currency union, Osborne has described the ‘gaping chasm at the core’ of the SNP’s plans for an independent Scotland:

‘The evidence shows it wouldn’t work.