I posted my tweets in response to Andrew Neil's comments on Scottish currency here, yesterday.
Last night one of the many responses was this one:
Danny and I are, indeed, old friends. For those who don't know him, Danny was also at one time a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, where his approach to managing the 2008 crisis stood in marked contrast to that on f many others on that committee at the time, to his credit. I also rank him as the best labour economist the UK has right now, even if he does teach in the USA.
Why does this matter? Because Scotland needs support to make the case for independence and the more credible voices make that case the better. New currencies in new countries are normal. Getting people to agree that this is not an issue is important.
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It seems to me that Scotland has this one chance of Indy and they certainly need to get the big things right. A new currency will scare the life out of many, but if it is the right decision, I hope they have the strength of mind and purpose to follow it through.
From all I read and now understand, a new currency is vital to the success of an independent Scotland.
Hang, if it wasn’t so wet and cold and full of midges, I would be tempted to move there..
“if it wasn’t so wet and cold and full of midges” – it’d be like Benidorm. Come to the Borders, it’s only wettish, coldish and has only a few midges. Unfortunately, it also has too many Tories.
Without a new currency we’re shafted and there are those “dangerous” voices who still have the upper hand at SNP HQ and want the neoliberal order to continue, wealth trickling upwards, business lobbyists creating policy, bankers setting the economic agenda etc. My hope is that after the first GE on Independence we will get a coalition of the left, some socialists even, who will give those embedded in the system for their own profit, their marching orders.
I might be persuaded by the Borders; another closet Tory can’t hurt.
Yes, I am persuaded that Scotland must have a new currency if it is to be freed from the shackles of Westminster.
It does need a more collaborative approach and also much more public engagement via citizens assembly etc. The majority of people who start out with a fixed viewpoint do become open to alternate arguments once they are given the genuine opportunity to hear from knowledgeable people and are allowed to discuss and debate etc..
I fear that Scotland will end up in the worst of all situations (although can anything be as bad as Westminster?).
Sadly we have a state of affairs where the majority of people on the planet now live in monetary economies and yet don’t have the slightest idea how money is created to use in their economies.
Indeed they don’t understand the very nature of money or why its possible to use it and use the term monetary economy.
Ask them to explain it and they become flummoxed and it becomes obvious they can’t even think through coherently the set of constraints the use of money has to observe.
As we can see with individuals like Andrew Neil this failure to think coherently literally translates into him stating five million people can’t have their own democracy and therefore their own monetary economy.
The two are intertwined!
In summary a point has now been reached in human development where the species has hit a self-inflicted brick wall where there’s massive and majority failure to understand you can’t have genuine democracy without understanding how a monetary economy really works!
Quote from Alex Neil (SNP MSP) today, who wants to see a complete rewrite of the SNP’s policy – “It is difficult to see how we can re-build the Scottish economy without the tools available to independent nations, including a currency and central bank.” He’ll know about Tim Rideout’s amendment, but equally knows that some, like Andrew Wilson, are trying to ignore it.
Alex is a veteran MSP, and well regarded by many in the party and in the Scottish government. Unfortunately, he has decided not to stand again in next year’s election, but I hope his views will add to the other SNP voices who are in favour of what he says.
I suspect he will have influence for a while
Tony Benn retired to do politics
I blame Neil’s hair implant my self. He’s never been the same since.
🙂
Not sure if this is the right blogpost for this but I’d appreciate some clarification if possible:
I have investments managed by an Edinburgh based company which are funds they manage for me which invest around the world & UK & are reported in £ sterling. The company is regulated by the FCA. The questions I have are;
– assuming a new currency after independence what currency will these funds be valued in by an Edinburgh based company?
– Is there a plan for a Scottish FCA?
The suggestion is they would stay in sterling because that is the currency the funds are registered in – i.e. on the LSE
I am quite sure there would have to be a Scottish FCA
One hopes they will do better
Sorry – what suggestion & by who?
Many of my funds are not LSE – what abut USD funds?
Safer for me to move to rUk institution I think.
You decide what exchange risk you want
No one is suggesting compulsion
But your tax will be due in Scottish pounds
Would the new Scottish currency float or be pegged to sterling?
If it doesn’t float Scotland is not independent because it could not set its own economic policy
‘But your tax will be due in Scottish pounds’
So what I think you are saying is (I may have misunderstood) that funds will be denominated in Sterling but that any tax due would be in the new currency at an as yet unknown tax rate or exchange rate?
Yes
Of course
Thank you, Richard, for this one.
The problem isn’t that the terrible SNP want to keep neo-liberal policies and the currency, etc. It’s because the SNP know that the very idea of dumping sterling for some unknown factor is what kept (and will continue to keep) many fearful voters for going for independence. Saying we’ll keep the pound, at least for a while, makes a Yes vote more likely. It sounds to nervous voters as if it’s a smoother, less disruptive, and safer transition.
There are two issues here.
One – considering what an independence Scotland will–or should–be like. (Separate currency giving us full fiscal power. Of course.)
Two – getting previous No voters to change their minds and vote Yes. (A plan to keep the pound until a separate currency can be set up–however long–or short–that may take. Of course.)
There was a reason why, in 2014, the Unionist camp derided the notion that Scotland would be able to keep the pound–until the last minute when Alastair Darling finally admitted on TV that ‘yes, of course, you can keep the pound.’ It was not because Better Together wanted the best for Scotland, and was actually worried that little bittie diddums Scotland might be going to hurt itself. It’s because they wanted to scare Scottish people, so they WOULDN’T leave the Union at all. The ploy worked.
Now the same camp is throwing the idea around that it would be really hard for Scotland to have its own currency, etc. Different tack, but same motivation. Scare people into thinking it’s better the devil they know. With any luck, we won’t get fooled again.
These are NOT the forces that want Scotland to gain independence. They are not trying to help us forge a better independence. These are the forces that want people to lose heart and either not vote, or go back to voting No. They are getting increasingly desperate, and will use any tactics they can come up with. Logic and sense aren’t part of it. Smoke and mirrors to the fore.
The SNP need a plan to construct a good Scotland, after independence–of course they do. They also need a plan to gain independence in the first place.
Sometimes one plan looks as if it’s contradicting the other. But I think they’re a canny bunch, those SNP, and know what their ultimate aim is. It’s not neoliberalism. I’ve been a party member since 1990, and I can say that with confidence. The cards have NOT all been placed on the table, by any means.
Your attitude that, of course Scotland could have its own currency in place, and quite quickly as well, is exactly what we need to hear just now. It’s normal for a newly-independent country to create its own currency. Just keep hammering that home. And thank you.
Thanks Jan
I am sure they are doing the ‘we will just use sterling for the first few years’ line because they think it will soothe the pensioner vote (which is larger than it is in England). Unfortunately, though, they have not thought this through because it will not survive 5 minutes once the IndyRef 2 campaign starts:
Chancellor: “What is your policy on currency?”
Sturgeon: “We are going to use sterling for the first few years until conditions are right and we meet the 6 tests and then have our own currency.”
Chancellor: “No you won’t! Even the dogs in the street know that independent countries use their own currencies. What you are actually going to do as soon as you get independence is to introduce your own currency. So shortly afterwards folk will switch on the breakfast telly to find their sterling was confiscated during the night and replaced with something you just created on the photocopier.”
Sturgeon: “No, honestly we are going to just carry on using sterling.”
Chancellor: “No you won’t”.
And we are straight back to 2014 because there is no way we can prove that we will just carry on using sterling.