and by retaining Stirling, they know the UK will bail them out to keep Stirling going,
I didn't think the fat 'Eck and his teuchtars were planninhg to move the border that far north to get a majority, although there is a case for going back a thousand years or so and including Edinburgh and all points south in England. (Auld Reekie gets its formal name from the time when it was the capital of King Edwin of Northumbria).
Or perhaps Aluminium shuffler meant sterling, the currency.