The three Establishment Parties, Tory, Labour and LibDems, in a rare display of unanimity, have just declared that if Scotland votes for independence the new state will need to have its own new currency. It cannot keep on using the British Pound. We agree.
However, they did this undoubtedly mainly to scotch the campaign for Scottish independence, which we also think would be a bad thing, for Scotland and the rest of Britain. But it also scotches the case for the euro, and the international currency unions generally.
Because the reason Scotland, were it an independent nation, could not use the Pound is exactly the same reason independent nations generally cannot use somebody else’s currency, such as the euro, and at the same time be meaningfully independent.
For any currency is underpinned by the fiscal and general economic policy of the entity issuing it, which in turn determines the rate at which it exchanges with other currencies. Conversely, adjusting the exchange rate of its currency, devaluing or revaluing it, is an essential instrument of the economic policy of an independent nation.
Any nation which does not issue its own currency ipso facto surrenders a large and vital part of its sovereignty to whoever does issue that currency. So much so that it is not in any meaningful sense independent at all.
Wanting to keep the Pound makes a mockery of Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party’s campaign for “Independence”. The “independence” they seek is thus revealed as just as much a token sham as their “nationalism”, which defines anyone of any origin, heritage or culture who happens to be legally resident in Scotland at any time as “Scottish”.
The same point applies the other way around to those nations who have surrendered their often ancient national currencies to the euro. Something all three Establishment Parties have wanted us to do at some time or another.
They too have surrendered their independence. The reason the euro is not working, the reason it has been staggering along on life support for years, only kept going by regular transfusions of German taxpayers’ cash, is that they have not surrendered their independence enough. Yet, to make a common currency work they need a common financial and economic policy laid down by a common government.
The eurozone countries, ironically, have already surrendered enough independence to wreck their economies where, like Greece, they need to devalue their currency, if they still had one, whilst other Eurozone members, like Germany, need to do the opposite. But they have not yet surrendered enough sovereignty to make the euro actually work. That requires a Eurozone superstate, which is what Brussels has wanted all along, intends to use and is using the Eurozone crisis to get.
Unless those in the Eurozone who, unlike the SNP, are REAL Nationalists, stop them. As the likes of the French FN and the Austrian Freedom Party realise, getting their own currency back is vital to their countries surviving as independent nations.
The Tories’ George Osborne, Labour’s Ed Balls, and the LibDems’ Danny Alexander, seeking a to score a short-term tactical point over the SNP, have made a long-term strategic point for the BDP, and for our European friends trapped in the Euro. Thank you, gentlemen!
3
Abandoning the Sterling Pound could be the best thing to happen to Scotland. The Scottish national currency would then not be contaminated by the falling value of the pound, and Scottish banks would become subject to the regulatory requirements of the Scottish government, not the Bank of England. Immediately Scottish currency was free from Bank of England control, the value of the Scottish “pound” (which may have a different name) would rise. Foreign investment across the board, including purely financial investment as well as industrial, would increase. And there is something else nobody seems to have mentioned – if Scotland becomes its own sovereign state, quitting the United Kingdom, it will gain international territorial rights over the parts of the ocean which surround its own geographical location. These potential “Scottish territorial waters” contain vast natural gas/oil deposits and Scotland houses much of the infrastructure and support bases! (See references below). An independent Scottish nation can claim these waters.
http://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/map.jpg?283efa
http://www.dukeswoodoilmuseum.co.uk/North sea.htm
Why would they want to impose massive transaction costs on their businesses in order to export their goods to what is currently, and will probably always be, their biggest market by far ie England?
I disagree with Peter on this one. Scotland cannot make it financially on it’s own. London is the financial centre certainly for Europe and only second to Wall St.
Breaking up the UK would further weaken Britain and must be discouraged. The GB£ is a strong currency currently $1.66 to the pound with the Euro at 1.22€. The pound is a strong currency and can be stronger if we can adopt the correct policies for growth. The rest of the world is not stupid and putting their money in GB£ and investing in Britain, that is really England of course. The Scots would be committing financial suicide by voting to split from the UK.
(Party Member) Our Party is completely in favour of maintaining the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom. Regarding Scotland our Policy Document clearly states “We would oppose absolutely any move to break up the United Kingdom by Independence for Scotland or the ceding of Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland.”
It’s starting to look like a “Jock Strapped Pound” on a yes vote. A currency all trussed up with a hernia. Perhaps they will have to create and issue a new currency that they will be in full control of on full independence.
I would agree with the article entirely. Obviously this was posted a day before the EU Commission President Barosso announced on the Andrew Marr programme, that Scotland’s application to join the EU, and thus, also join the Euro, could not be guaranteed. I must admit, I was surprised by that, as I had presumed that the EU would have welcomed the opportunity to bust up the UK and would therefore have gone out of its way to smooth the path. These two developments, coming within days of each other, would seem to have stuffed up the Separatist’s (they are NOT ‘nationalist’s’) case for ‘independence’.
This must now have killed off any chance of Salmond’s dream of independence. If Salmond was a true Nationalist he would not attempt to surrender Scotland to the failed EU project.