Independent Scotland and Jose Manuel Barroso

Jose Manuel Barroso: The opening shot was fired by Chancellor George Osborne in London, who declared an independent Scotland could not negotiate a currency union with the rest of the United Kingdom. With only one-tenth of Britain's population, Scotland is just too small to demand an equal say in how the pound is run. Besides, why would London want to keep the responsibility for Scotland's huge and rather dodgy banking sector? , according to Winnipeg Free Press. Next was the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who warned it would be "difficult, if not impossible" for an independent Scotland to join the European Union. Other EU members that don't want their own autonomous regions to secede would almost certainly block Scotland's membership -- Barroso was talking mainly about Spain and the separatists in Catalonia -- and one veto is enough. The referendum on Scotland's independence is only six months away, and suddenly the cautious sparring between the Conservative-led coalition government in London and First Minister Alex Salmond's pro-independence government in Edinburgh has turned into open war. London won the first battles, and the No side will probably win the referendum in September -- but it is going to be a long war. Alex Salmond responded by threatening to repudiate Scotland's share of the national debt if London wouldn't agree to a currency union, but the conclusion was obvious. Scotland could go on using the British pound if it wanted like Panama and East Timor use the U.S. dollar , but it could have no formal link. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.