A SENIOR economist has called for two major constitutional issues to be resolved for voters before the independence referendum on September 18.
Jeremy Peat, director of think-tank the David Hume Institute, has flagged as "critical" the need to resolve the currency issue before the vote. He warned the option chosen by an independent Scotland would have serious implications for monetary and fiscal policy, as well as the economy in general.
He also demanded greater clarity on whether there would be further devolution should Scotland vote no.
Writing in The Herald today, Mr Peat signals his preference for retaining sterling in the event of a Yes vote. "I agree that retaining sterling is far and away the preferred option," he said.
"The prospect of either adopting the euro or setting up Scotland's own currency fills me with dread."
He called for the debate to move on from the "pantomime" that involves the two sides disagreeing over whether a sterling currency union is possible.
"Thank goodness our Canadian friend at the Bank of England [governor Mark Carney] has at least agreed that the issue should be discussed. Please let that proper discussion commence - with a focus on the economic analysis, not the political rhetoric."
He added: "Time is not on our side and again reaching referendum date without clarity on this critical issue is close to unthinkable."
While most parties have indicated further devolution is desirable, Mr Peat said voters "need to know what enhanced financial devolution would be planned before casting that vote".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article