YESs Salmond kicks NO ass at FMs questions on the currency issue today. Keeping the same policy positon but taking a different strategic tack from Tuesday nights debate, the FM sounded confident, logical and reasonable and made his opponents look like they were looking for unionist angels dancing on the head of media led spin. Key elements of this different strategic approach were: a) listing the options in the White paper and stating the SGs position on each clearly b) re-emphasising the reasons in favour of a currency union c) emphasing that the pound is ours, and that no one can keep us from using it. (the phrase the pound is ours, and were keeping it is memorable and effective d) explaining that lack of a currency union or use of the Bank of England (in legal reality the central bank of the UK) would mean an independent Scotland starting debt free, because while its reasonable that assets and liabilities should be fairly shared, denial of assets would mean Scotland would have no moral obligation to contribute to liabilities. All of this is close to the idea of a Plan B plus suggested by myself and The Point a few months back: that we put ourselves in a position of guaranteeing use of the pound to voters, either in a formal currency union, or without a formal currency union, in the very unlikely event that Westminster will play silly buggers with their own national interest, but with Scotland then starting debt free and £5 billion to the good per annum. This was a very effective approach and we would urge Point reades to watch for themselves. Now, making the caveat that The Point, along with many others on the left, believe that an independent Scotland should eventually have its own currency, we would strongly suggest that this new approach be the one that is taken up by the SNP and the YES campaign as a whole. Its a logical and appealing positon, and BT are scared of it (which is why they and their flunkeys are now using the words Panama and dollaristaion a lot. Seriously...watch this, and share (with our comment in full) with friends Steve Arnott. Editorial Co-ordinator,
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 14:31:29 +0000
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