Way back in 2007 I had a shocking encounter with American Express that had me straight onto my blog in outrage. I had been offered a woeful exchange rate for my Scottish banknotes, way worse than the rate for English notes.
Granted, given the current inexorable decline of the British currency, I would bite the hand off anyone offering the 1.87 rate that was offered then but I was offended by the injustice and stormed out as best as a mild-mannered chap such as myself could.
It is therefore not before time that a politician has taken action. David Mundell is putting forward a Private Member's Bill to ensure that Scottish banknotes are legal tender south of the border and, consequently, will attract the same exchange rate as English banknotes abroad.
It's an easy win for the Tories and David personally in his Borders constituency.
Although it is understandable that SNP politicians have not brought forward legislation due to the political nature of the issue, one has to wonder what has prevented other Scottish politicians from doing so for all these years. The imbalance has been in place since 1954.
It really is time that Scotland matched England, pound for pound.
10 comments:
Don't know if you've commented on it yet, Jeff, but I just saw this on politicalbetting and thought you'd be interested!
Scottish sub-sample from the latest ComRes(Independent on Sunday poll (usual caveats apply; change from UK GE 2005):
SNP 36% (+18%)
Lab 35% (-4%)
Con 13% (-3%)
LD 7% (-16%)
Grn 4% (+3%)
oth 4%
http://www.comres.co.uk/page190675923.aspx
I'd sure as hell hate to be a Lib Dem in this day and age
Nice one, I missed it so thanks.
It looks like that Tory revival wasn't meant to be after all.
And yes, the Lib Dems are getting properly squeezed.
He's not arguing for Scottish notes to become legal tender, but for it to be impermissible to reject them - to avoid complicating the meaning of legal tender (although what he's proposing is more bizarre)
on a personal note, and i dont know if you follow football, aswell as supporting morton, I support Leyton Orient, a lower league english club based in East London, as I used to live there.
I cant get to many games, but once a year go to their game against carlisle, and even there, i didnt get my notes accepted once! in carlisle! Its practically in Scotland
Oddly, I've got to say I look askance at English notes when they're handed to me. It's purely a familiarity thing, I see more of Irish and american coins (the ones that resemble 1p and 5p) each year than I do English notes.
I'm not surprised Scottish, non-legal tender, notes are rejected by so many. Doesn't make it right.
What gets my goat is when you ask for a sausage supper down south and they just look at you blankly like you're some kind of mental heid-case who's just asked if they can stick their hand in the hot oil because you think it might be fun ...
Oh, and nice poll results too 8)
Alasdair - given your experiences down south in asking for a sausage supper, I would advise against asking for a mealy puddin'.
I'm surprised at what you say about English notes though, I often feel I see more English than Scottish notes, especially tenners and fivers, but whatever is dominant I certainly don't really notice English notes.
Surprised that a Tory MP is introducing the bill though.
I wonder if he's proposed similar provisons regarding Irish sterling notes in Scotland ;0)
Mundell did a poll of his constituency on what was concerning them and if he could do anything about it. This came near the top of the list I believe. So fair play, a politician doing his bit for his constituents.
Apparently Scotland is not legally bound to accept all English notes by the way. Feel free to wreak your revenge HP et al (it may involve a career change into a cash handling position I'm afraid...)
And Scott, I am vaguely aware of some arcane difficulties in switching the rules on legal tender, hence the fairly bizarre roundabout nature of what Mundell's trying to do (which I wasn't actually aware of). It could be one of those 'more hassle than it's worth' laws, like Catholics beoming King. Still, at least he's taking some easy political points over the issue.
Easy win for a unionist of any party I'd have thought.
Lots of tourism in Mundell's area and many tourist books say Scottish banknotes won't be accepted in England.
Many times I'm asked by foreign or English visitors to make sure their change only has English notes in it.
Money's money to me so it doesn't matter in the least, it's just the insult that presses a wrong button.
The legal tender difficulty is that you are obliged to accept legal tender in settlement of debts. In Scotland the only legal tender are coins (and for most debts only £1 or £2 coins as those of lower denominations can only be used for lower value debts (copper for up to 20P &c). What Mundell is proposing is an obligation to accept Scottish bank notes for payment - how that differs from legal tender is not explicit in his proposal.
Bill Walker used to propose making Scottish bank notes legal tender down south - failing to realise they weren't legal tender up here.
As for English notes they're promissory notes in Scotland, but the place of payment legally is London - and the moment you cross the border they become legal tender, so are promissory notes that can never be enforced. Scottish banknotes are promissory notes throughout the UK - and if so minded one could take your bank note into the appropriate office of the relevant bak (each note specifies a place of payment) and demand legal tender. They may look at you in an odd way - but would be legally bound to do so.
Apologies for length of comment. I teach this stuff annually, and the lectures on it are coming up
;-)
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