Scotland is an ingenious country saddled with the most witless politicians in Europe. Why give them more power?

It would be all too easy this week to argue that the case for Scottish independence is falling apart. Alex Salmond is an able politician and a peerless mischief-maker, but he tends to fall mute when confronted with the myriad contradictions of his own policies. It happened this week, when George Osborne said that it is ‘unlikely’ that the rest of the UK would enter into a formal currency pact with an independent Scotland. No matter, says Mr Salmond, an independent Scotland would use sterling anyway.

This would be a strange form of independence. It would reduce Scotland to the status of Panama, which uses the US dollar without the approval of the US government. It is not proving a happy arrangement for the Panamanians. As the US Treasury, like the Bank of England, rolls the presses in an attempt to print its way out of economic crisis, it is exporting inflation.