Dr Tim Rideout is now well known amongst Scottish nationalists: it was his resolution that, thankfully, changed SNP policy on a Scottish currency. He has now launched a website for what he calls the Scottish Reserve Bank:
It's well worth a visit.
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Congratulations to Tim.
I do hope that SNP avoid the faulty narratives I’ve seen bandied about on this issue and although I am fond of the Union, if Scotland ‘goes’ then they should go well. Best of luck to them.
But I still have this fear that not all of the SNP are convinced or that other orthodox influences will get at them. Think about what happened to Labour in the 1970’s with the IMF and Bill Clinton’s defeat at the hands of Greenspan.
Stay vigilant Scotland!
Thank you! Yes well of course the Growth Commission’s friends in the City, for example, slavering over all the big commissions to be made out of lending sterling to the Scottish Government when we dither about with Sterling for a decade or more. I am doing my best to get rid of the risk of any of that. Angus MacNeil MP is certainly a fan of Prof Murphy so that is one influential person that does not need any convincing.
I do point out in my talks that when the SG runs a large deficit (due to the costs of setting up all the new ministries, etc) in the few years after Indy, how many S£ can it borrow from international money markets? This is on the basis the new currency comes in 8 weeks or so after Indy. The answer is exactly zero, simply because international markets won’t have any S£ to lend. You could borrow Sterling or Dollars or Euro, but that would be entirely pointless as they can’t be spent in Scotland. So with our own currency the international market is entirely irrelevant. The only place the SG can get S£ is either from people, pension funds, etc in Scotland OR by simply running an overdraft at the Scottish Reserve Bank. I tend to favour 50/50 of each, so only issuing S£ bonds to cover half the deficit. New S£ will have to be issued continuously over the 2-3 years after it is introduced to accommodate late exchangers of sterling (probably of the order of £50-60 billion) and to stop the S£ rising too much against Sterling. It might as well be used for a purpose by the SG as the alternative is for the SRB to just sell it into the FX market and accumulate yet more Foreign Reserves that are of little use (due to being in foreign currencies).
Thanks Tim
You won[t be po[pular for pointing out the obvious…
Hi Richard, well I have never been somebody that aimed at being popular. Always the quiet one in the corner.
No problem with that
Fantastic! Well done Tim, this is exactly what we need, an easily linkable, clear website. If the SNP could produce similar for each thing we need to consider for organisation, I think that would enhance people’s understanding and knowledge. Most particularly, it’s the plan; timeline and process, that should be set out – if people understand how things are going to be done it makes people relax with any proposals. And this website does that, with closer examination on sections people may question, superb.
Just one tiny tiny little thing – I’ve only done a skim read but it stood out – could you miss out the bit ‘lowers the union flag for the last time’? Now, this might bring a feeling of potential relief to many of us, but could cause some anxiety to others that still feel emotionally connected to the union – we have to be cognisant of the fact that many people will feel distressed at the prospect, the finality of ‘the last time’ is taking it a bit too far, we cannae tell what’s gony happen in the future eh.
Everything seems organised and just what Scotland needs.
Admirable initiative and congratulations to Tim. One snag however: on the Contact page, the “I’m not a robot” box wouldn’t activate when clicked and consequently sent me off on an endless loop of trying to send/refusal to send. It needs a bit of attention.
Otherwise just what’s needed.