The SNP led Scottish government has said in a document on ending lockdown today that:
The austerity driven response to the 2008 financial crash did not work and worsened the inequality that was part of its cause; we must not repeat those mistakes. Inequality is also worsening the outcomes for those people impacted by the coronavirus. Our younger people deserve a fairer and more secure economic future.
That is true, of course. But the SNP leadership's commitment to independence and continuing to use the pound after it had happened would guarantee austerity in Scotland for decades after that 'in name only' independence had been achieved, and all to no avail.
If the SNP really believes austerity cannot work it has to firstly commit to independence, secondly commit to abandoning the pound, and thirdly say so.
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Yes, 100%. The Growth Commission was a monumental own-goal on currency and neoliberal economics. But then they chose the wrong person to chair it.
They should adopt many of the proposals coming out of Common Weal. They are well thought out, eminently sensible, progressive, well argued, take account of equity and fairness. In truth, there is nothing in their manifesto that should frighten anyone – quite the opposite.
The SNP need the membership to give their leaders a good kicking.
Agreed
Ask Tim….
With the oil price through the floor the prospects for an independent Scotland look grim. Indeed the SNP current push towards independence is nothing more than a token effort.. clearly you despise pretty much everything to do with GB or more so England so you push the story anyway
Oil has nothing to do with the case for independence now
And Scotland has more energy per head of population in Europe
It’s just renewable now
You clearly are clueless
So much for independence! The SNP out of ignorance still wants the Scottish people to retain a “financial reliance” ring through their noses!
In their defence Helen, they (we) may be a bit less ignorant than the Tory and Labour parties. I venture to suggest that the SNP may have a higher percentage of members who understand MMT than either of those parties. They certainly get the currency issue. Tim Rideout, who posts here, took on the might of the Growth Commission on the currency topic, and his resolution was passed at the SNP conference. I also think the tide is turning against the Growth Commission among some of the party hierarchy.
Not a lot of people know this, but Alex Salmond was strongly in favour of having an independent Scottish currency before the 2014 referendum. In 2013, he argued the point with (now Lord) George Robertson in what was known as the Great Debate. Subsequently he was persuaded, either on the basis of expediency or perhaps by his economic advisers (including Joe Stiglitz), that the referendum should be fought on the basis of keeping the UK £.
I think your view on Salmond’s position is correct
George you’re right about Tim Rideout’s outstanding achievement in getting his Amendment passed at the SNP Conference, but I perceive a silo mentality at the core of the party, which is not surprising given the massive, open hostility of the media and the Unionist movement and politicians. That mentality results in Andrew Wilson being close to the heart of power in the SNP and having undue influence over its economic policies (cf his disastrous proposals in the Growth Commission), simply because he’s been around the SNP for a long time.
Tim’s intervention was timely, dramatic and essential, but I fear that his influence at the party’s core might be less telling than Andrew Wilson’s. AW’s views are straight out of the neoliberal playbook that created the economic weaknesses which the Covid1 pandemic has revealed. If we’re to avoid more long-term waffling with little progress being made towards independence, the influence of neoliberal economic thinking has to be neutered.
Whatever the new post-pandemic “normal” turns out to be, it has to be a different “normal” and unquestionably a better one. Going forward my hope is that the party will be much more positive about adopting a radically different policy platform: it has to embrace policies that will drive a more equitable social, environmental, fiscal and monetary outcomes otherwise what would independence achieve other than “more of the same”? This means they have to take the ethos of this site to heart: Green New Deal, a simplified and progressive tax system, a just care and welfare system, MMT at the heart of its economic policies and, above all, a sovereign currency.
The SNP ought to start planning this now so that, once the pandemic recedes, swift progress can be made. In the meantime there’s a fast-developing need for a revision to the Devolution settlement, which the Herald’s Political Editor, Tom Gordon (no fan of Independence) wrote about today:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18405402.tom-gordon-holyroods-finances-step-covid-crisis/
I am looking forward to Common Weal’s plan for the post coronavirus economy in Scotland
I have no involvement in it….
You are 100% correct about the SNP hierarchy Ken, and especially the malign influence of Andrew Wilson. However the party grassroots give me a bit of hope. If you don’t have hope, what else is there? The UK, assuming Coronavirus is conquered, will enter a new and deeper phase of austerity as the Tory government “rights the ship”. Surely then the veil will be lifted, and the Andrew Wilson prognosis can be discredited. If I’m wrong, and the UK takes a different path to recovery (unlikely), that would also discredit Andrew Wilson and his neoliberal ideas. #Bingo!
Memo to any country seeking independence:
At some point your government will – or might, only time will tell – be faced with the choice of accepting lots of deaths (say millions), or spending lots of money (trillions) to avoid them. You want it to be your government making that decision – that’s why you want independence. So you need it to be able to decide to spend trillions. If you don’t have your own currency, can it? Or does it have to get approval from elsewhere? If the latter, can it really be said to be independent?
Not that I disagree with anything here. But doesn’t the single European currency rather hang in the air when discussing this subject?
No
Scotland has to have its own currency before joining the euro
And there has only to be a commitment to joining it
No date is required
Ask Sweden…
Not even that. Sweden had a referendum on the subject – after joining. I doubt very much that an independent Scotland politically could fo down that road. But I agree an independent Scotland would need a central bank and currency to join the EU. I don’t see how how it could be compliant with TFEU otherwise. Montenegro never resolved that one.
Whether the EU would be keen on a new member being seen to drag its feet on the euro is another matter. The European Commission has not (yet) looked to force the issue on the euro but I don’t think an independence campaign could ignore the question. I suppose it’s all politics. And the euro may look very different soon anyway.
There is always the EEA?
But is the EU the only game in town? There was talk of a Nordic Union and a Celtic Union.
The current SNP leadership isn’t interested in gaining independence for Scotland. It’s full of careerists and establishment shills that are very happy to maintain the status quo. The C19 crisis has been a godsend for them, allowing them to stall and suspend any pro independence activity (Nichola Sturgeon actually announced this).
None of them have shown the courage, passion or intellect to do what is required to free Scotland from this abomination of a union. There are exceptions of course (Johanna Cherry, Phillipa Whitford…) but unless there is a purge of the chancers in the SNP hierarchy, independence is a dead duck for at least a decade.
Indeed. The Groat is worthy of low interest rates.
Certainly Scotland can never be truly independent and keep the £. No self respecting sovereign nation can surrender it’s monetary policy to a foreign power.
I noted at the time senior passionate Scot’s arguing that Scotland should never abandon the £ ,Alistair Darling ,Gordon Brown and Danny Alexander(Chief Sect to the Treasury). That’ d have been treason 500 years ago.
George Kerevan eviscerates the new Advisory Panel to Fiona Hyslop on Covid19 economic recovery: https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/04/23/recovery-covid-19-and-the-scottish-economy/
I’m not encouraged by the same old faces and ideas.