A recording of a conversation between Alex Salmond and George Osborne has been leaked* to The Spectator. An edited extract follows:
Alex Salmond: Scotland and England are different countries. So different, in fact, that we should no longer live together. Our interests have diverged and so must our futures.
George Osborne: I do not think that is the case. Nor, by the way, do I hope it is.
Alex Salmond: But it is!
George Osborne: [wearily] Perhaps you are right. Very well; if our interests and futures diverge then perhaps, as you suggest, present arrangements will no longer prove as satisfactory as once we thought they were.
Alex Salmond: I knew you would see the light.
George Osborne: Which is why I do not think it sensible, desirable or possible for us to maintain a currency union after independence.
Alex Salmond: Stop bullying me.
George Osborne: [leers] I am merely following your own logic, old boy.
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