Letters / No ifs, no buts!
Alex Salmond is forever telling us that in the event of Scotland becoming independent we’ll be forming a currency union with the UK. No ifs, no buts!
It turns out that on yet another occasion his claims are far from any conception of reality.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the Scottish Constitutional Futures Forum of constitutional lawyers, Colin McKay, Head of the Scottish Government Strategy Unit, admitted that the forthcoming White Paper would contain “political promises” some of which would “not be an inevitable consequence of independence”.
Put simply, Alex Salmond and SNP ministers intend to woo the Scottish electorate with vacuous “promises” which are nothing more than aspirations snatched from the rag-bag nationalist wish-list.
What is absolutely certain, an indisputable fact, is that the only way to retain the pound, protect the currency and retain Scottish influence over it is to remain within the United Kingdom. No ifs, no buts!
In the event that Scotland does become independent and succeeds in entering into a currency arrangement with the UK it will do so without influence of any sort over tax, spending, interest rates or monetary policy of the nation next-door upon whose currency it would rely.
In all likelihood the converse would apply – Scotland would have to toe the UK line in matters of public spending and taxation – without effective say in the matter.
Salmond’s own Fiscal Commission told him that using the pound in the same way that Panama uses the dollar would not be a credible option.
We need look no further than beyond these shores to Europe to appreciate the many difficulties that the French, Italians, Germans, etc. have in reconciling joint currency arrangements.
Today, as part of the UK, we have a stable currency, a currency over which we have influence through the democratic process. No ifs, no buts!
Let’s keep it that way! We are indeed Better Together. Vote NO in the referendum.
George Jacobson
Exnaboe
Virkie
Andrina Tulloch
Quarff
Jean Marwick
Lerwick
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