Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Brian
You can have a currency union of sorts. Take the Dollar for example. How many other Countries use it linked to the US Economy. I know this doesn't give you full economic autonomy but it does work in some cases. This was not made clear by the Independence Campaign. In Fact, I think they thought all they had to do was hold the referendum and it was won. I was for independence but looking at it in the same way I look at leaving the EU. That would have worked though admittedly it would have been hard at first as will leaving the latter. In the end, I believe the price is well worth paying.
---------- Post added at 09:02 ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 ----------
Perhaps they should follow the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. LOL!
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Not to take this too far off topic, but Dollarisation (which, it now turns out, is what Salmond would have done in the event of Yes), can work in some limited circumstances, if you intend to surrender all but a fig leaf-sized chunk of your independence - it works in Panama, where a very large chunk of that country's national income comes from the canal, and is therefore paid in Dollars anyway. They're never going to run out. It didn't work in Argentina, where they pegged their currency to USD until it became impossible to sustain. The country is still paying the economic cost of that folly.
The currency issue is still the trump card in any argument over Scottish independence. Almost all of Scotland's economic activity outside Scotland is in England - vastly more than with the EU. To create a currency barrier, whether with the Euro or by resurrecting Pound Scots, would be crippling. To use Sterling, whether directly or via a currency peg, would result in independence in name only. I can't believe anyone who truly wishes for Scotland to be a fully independent, self-determining nation state would be stupid enough to believe that's what they would get in currency union with England.
And be in no doubt - if Scotland applies to join the EU independently of the U.K., it will first be compelled to set up its own central bank, and then to adopt the Euro. As a Euro-leaver, I trust you already understand the negative implications of that.
EDIT
I should also ask, rhetorically, why anyone would be stupid enough to entrust the task of nation-building to a gang of amateurs who clearly never gave a moment's thought to the currency issue while writing their so-called "white paper".