‘I NEVER lost. I simply repositioned the location of victory,” joked lampooner Angry Salmond the day following the vote against independence.

That euphemism was comedy. But Downing Street now employs a similar vocabulary, apparently with a straight face.

The media were told that Theresa May’s speech on Brexit today will cause a “market correction”. That’s a bit like saying falling off a cliff means you have “altered your gravitational stance”.

In 1967, Harold Wilson’s planned 14 per cent devaluation of the pound caused great concern, and he had to take to the airwaves to calm the country.

The fall in the pound since last July has been even greater. Rather than seek calm, Theresa May is the cause. Sudden currency devaluations, capital flights, and a jump in inflation are only some of the concerns over a Hard Brexit.

May, in deciding to prioritise migration controls over economic trade, is making the whole country poorer in response to grievances against foreigners. Why is she willing to leave the single market and customs union in order to block the rights of migrants? Politics.

It plays well to Tory, Ukip, and many Labour voters to risk England’s various exporting sectors on anti-migrant populism. We’ve already seen the consequences from the thin edge of this wedge: universities cut off from foreign students, families like the Brains threatened with deportation, and the imprisonment and mistreatment of asylum seekers.

This agenda – not the Northern Irish border, a Scottish deal, or further devolution – will fixate the minds of Tory ministers for the years to come. How far can they drag economic concessions from the EU Commission while demanding harsh migrant controls?

The answer is not very far. Last week Angel Merkel again ruled out full membership of the single market for the UK without free movement. EU Commission chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the same in December, as did the EU Parliament lead negotiator Guy Verhofstadt.

May knows this. By saying she would rather close off migration than have open trade, she is making a choice: economic self-sabotage to appease anti-migrant voters. When the EU refuse to give the Tories a unicorn, they promise to shoot themselves in the foot.

The question is whether the sabre-rattling in London today continues when the real negotiations start and the Tories find themselves totally isolated. Switzerland has a similar experience. A 2014 referendum narrowly returned a vote against free movement. After two-and-a-half years of talks, the EU Commission hadn’t budged on the economic consequences of such a change. So the Swiss fudged the talks.

Such a U-turn doesn’t seem open – legally or politically – within the Tories’ narrowing two-year negotiating window. Neither is there room for concessions on the EU side – where other eurosceptic movements need to be prevented from causing further disintegration.

Today is an opening, unrealistic salvo in a long drama. The question remains: the Tories have asked for an undeliverable deal. Will they really take aim at the UK’s arteries of trade at the time when this negotiating window is slammed shut?

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How Scotland inspired the Basque nation

SCOTLAND’S referendum was a force for peace and democracy in the world. I believed it. Now I can prove it. Last week I heard Angel Oiarbide, an activist from the Basque Country, address the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Basque Country, subjugated by Franco’s far-right Spanish administration, bled with violence from separatist ETA forces and Spanish security services. Over one thousand people died. Tens of thousands were arrested. Beginning in 1959, ETA officially declared a ceasefire only in 2011.

No wonder then that Oiarbide said his pro-independence movement Gure Esku Dago faced the trepidation of a citizenry scarred by old, violent political struggle.

But now they are thriving – finding hope, and hosting nation wide votes in a peaceful and democratic manner.

What had inspired the organisers? Repeated visits to see Scotland’s 2014 referendum campaign and vote in action.

“It was something that gave us a great deal of hope. It suddenly became something tangible," he told the conference. “It was a real watershed moment, seeing Scotland have its referendum. We’ve learnt a great deal from the example of Scotland. We’ve learnt that people can be valued when they take part.

"We don’t need violence. We don’t need conflict. All of this can take place in a peaceful way.”

He concluded: “I hope another Scottish referendum will also be felt by all of us, and that it can give us further momentum."

Gure Esku Dago are now a movement in the Basque Country pursuing democratic, peaceful, constitutional change following visits to Scotland and studying what happened here.

It is one of the greatest legacies of Scotland’s political transformation.

Michael Gray @GrayInGlasgow is a journalist with CommonSpace.scot