MUCH discussion has taken place regarding the currency that Scotland would use should independence become a reality.
I wish to explain why a formal currency union may be unlikely to occur.
Imagine the weeks and months after a Yes vote. Scotland is an independent country. The negotiating team head south to negotiate a currency union to put in place after the final separation takes place. They return to Scotland empty-handed. How can this be? Mr Salmond assured us that a currency union was the sensible option for both Scotland and the remains of the UK. That may well be the case in those circumstances, but what Mr Salmond has forgotten is the human factor.
Imagine you are the Prime Minister during the negotiations for currency union. Since the publication of the independence White Paper by the Yes campaign, Mr Salmond has been bullish about his perception that a currency union will take place. All major parties against separation have stated categorically that currency union will not happen. If currency union were to take place under these circumstances, there could be huge levels of resentment in rUK at the sight of the British Prime Minister apparently caving in to the wishes of the Scottish First Minister. It would be political suicide. The British PM could never show his (or her) face in public again north or south of the Border. He or she would be ridiculed the world over. It could even cause the government of the rUK to collapse.
Mr Salmond is also keen to point out that this wished-for currency union will allow continued trade to continue between Scotland and rUK. Again he has failed to take the human element into account. There may well be a feeling amongst many down south of "well if you want to be independent then go ahead and be independent, but don't expect us to continue previous arrangements without determining if they are in our best interests". What were automatic choices may no longer be that way, so possibly one (large) export market may be diminished.
Once again the human factor comes into play. There are so many intangible aspects, where the impact of the way the campaign for independence has been run could determine the way we are seen. As Robert Burns wrote in the poem To a Louse:
"O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us.
We must when casting our vote do so in a cold and unemotional way based on what we actually know. Once again Robert Burns provides sage words from his poem To a Mouse.
"The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!"
Paul Marshall,
3 Maitland Path, Inverurie.
If we are not already exhausted by the independence debate with bickering politicians, and conflicting experts, this will be nothing compared to the uncertainty that will break out in the event of a Yes vote.
With everything from postage stamps to nuclear submarines to be negotiated we can expect a long negotiation between the two opposing governments, who will naturally be out to protect their own interests. All of the UK will have to weather the great uncertainty and upheaval Scottish independence would bring.
I am not sure voters appreciate independence will bring about seismic changes to our daily lives on currency arrangements, jobs, pension payments, income tax, nationality, defence, the EU, Nato, charities, oil revenue allocation and just about everything we touch to create an independent state, not a mini UK. The changes are uncosted and the 18-month timetable to sort out this divorce out is laughable; a more realistic 10 years may be needed. The complexity of the issues that have to be negotiated have been deliberately underplayed by the SNP so as not to put off voters, and give the impression it all can be sorted out by a flick of a switch.
A Yes vote is a huge gamble; the biggest of all is Alex Salmond's three Plan B currency options.
I will be voting No, and if anybody is still undecided or voting Yes, I suggest they think carefully about the enormous change and costs involved in creating an independent state, and the endless uncertainty over assets and currency that would surely follow. A No vote gives us devo-max, without the risk and uncertainty.
Bill Laver,
13 Gladstone Place, Queens Cross, Aberdeen.
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