A new look at the debate about Scottish currency.

What I have never understood is how it is possible for so many people in the Scottish independence campaign camp to publicly express the view that a new currency of Scotland is something which must be debated; yet when anyone attempts to debate this, they do not want to take part. How does that come about? You might think that if someone wants a public debate on an issue of importance that they would want to participate in it. My latest book ‘A Clean currency for a prosperous Scotland’ is an attempt to get such a discussion underway in a post Brexit Scotland.

Anyone who has paid attention to the crazy political pantomime which we have been subject to since the Tory Party found that it could not deal with its internal party divisions on this issue, and so decided to project it onto the general public of the UK will, like me, have been astonished by the contortions they have got themselves into. Far from resolving this Tory Party internal division it now looks set to drive the Tories apart in an irreconcilable break-up.

Currency, and Scottish independence would seem to have nothing to do with this internal Tory free-for-all; but they are now being pulled into it in a big way and can’t now avoid the consequences of this bust-up.

Currency has been shown by the Brexit shambles to be very vulnerable to any perceived weakness in the UK economy or trading relationships. This is not new to those of us who have been pointing out that sterling as a currency for the new Scotland was not a good idea. It may be that some, who had placed Scotland’s future economy and people in the hands of sterling and the City of London, will learn something from this, who knows? I’m sure however that many people in Scotland will have learned something.

As for independence, people must have learned a great deal from how the UK Government and Parliament have conducted themselves in the last few years, lessons of the nature of what not to do, or what to avoid doing; rather than learning negotiating and managerial skills, which they could apply to a Scottish parliament or government.

Indeed the Scottish Government has stood out in these years as the only clear example of rational and efficient Government in the UK while Westminster became a source of instability and disorganisation watched by a disbelieving world, only equalled by the Trump administration in some aspects of its incompetence.

Now that Scots have seen that the pound sterling is vulnerable as a currency they perhaps might want to look at it a lot closer as regards its role in Scotland’s future. When the Scottish people eventually vote for political independence they will need to ensure that they have economic independence also if they are to benefit from independence. In this regard the currency they should use in an independent Scotland is absolutely vital to their economic future.

This wee book is to help them to examine this issue and to make an informed judgement about it rather than to leave this important issue in the hands of the media, which is the voice of the super rich and does not have their interests at the top of its agenda.