"You've gotta accentuate the positive..."

Penny for your groat, sir? Or ought that to be the Scotch dollar, the Caledon doubloon, or the stout old British sterling, etched with the Queen's napper? Like most of the population, and like most politicians if they'd care to admit it, I know sod all about currency policy.  You can usually rely on your front benchers to dignify their rhetoric with at least a superficial veneer of technical knowledge, but often as not, they bear every appearance of clubbing away at each other with borrowed arguments, and winging it.

After a week off due to technical gremlins, the For A' That podcast is back. Joining Michael and I on episode number 23, Stewart Kirkpatrick, who is Head of Digital at the Yes Scotland campaign.  Top of the agenda this week, the recent currency stramash, the Chancellor's intervention, and its political fallout for independence supporters.

On politeness, Michael asks, YesScotland being too nice? By contrast, is the independence debate as a whole proving too ghastly, indicting and disrespectful? Citing a recent piece by Steven Noon, Stewart spoke about Yes Scotland's commitment to sounding positive notes, defending the official campaign's nicely-nicely "optimistic fairydust" approach to persuading Scots of the need for and virtues of independence.

Finally, we touched on the proverbial "rise of UKIP" south of the border in last week's County Council Elections. What , if anything, might the upward march of Nigel Farage and his comrades presage for the UK as a whole, and for the independence debate in Scotland in particular? You can listen hear, or alternatively, download the episode via itunes or from here. Apologise, otherwise, for the blog silence here of late. The tyrant, Work, has been cracking his goad and the last stages of writing up a doctoral thesis are proving an unforgiving time of it.