…because the mule is more likely to eventually concede the point.
Niall Ferguson, after explaining why Scottish independence will probably be (economically speaking) a poor life choice for Scotland*, wondered why the Scots seem to be thinking about doing it anyway. He wondered briefly; because the answer is, of course, that they’re Scots**:
Telling a Scot, “You can’t do this — if you do, terrible things will happen to you,” has been a losing negotiating strategy since time immemorial. If you went into a Glasgow pub tonight and said to the average Glaswegian, “If you down that beer, you’ll get your head kicked in,” he would react by draining his glass to the dregs and telling the barman, “Same again.”
Mind you, I’m Irish. We’ll do any damfool thing you want if there’s beer in it and maybe a band playing.
Moe Lane
*Short version: the EU doesn’t want them on the Euro and England won’t let them stay on the pound.
**My father’s mother was a MacMillan. Be grateful that I don’t use that excuse to (as Kim Newman once snarked in passing about people in my situation) dress in a kilt, quote Robbie Burns, and embrace every crass Scottish stereotype that there is.
