SO it’s GERs time and every year the SNP press office misses this open goal by trying to find the best spin on the figures rather than highlighting: a) Scotland is treated as a region in this data and putting aside questions of its accuracy, of the other regions only London and the south east are in surplus.
This highlights how the economic policies of this disunited kingdom do not work for Scotland, neither are they designed to.
Also: b) these figures represent a flawed view of the London’s running of the Scottish economy, as Westminster control all monetary levers, it controls over 70% of all tax income raised in Scotland; and c) to top this off we have very limited borrowing powers to allow us to build Scotland.
So whilst London gets Crossrail, HS2, HS1, Thameslink, a third Heathrow runway etc – each of which are transformational projects accelerating economic activity, we are given enough money to not even replace existing infrastructure. The Skye bridge gives you some idea of how infrastructure can rejuvenate local economies.
With control over our monetary and fiscal policy imagine what local economies of Scotland would look like if we could fund a fast train line from the central belt to Inverness and beyond, or tunnels to the islands (as the Swedes have), or 5g broadband like the Faroe Islands?
GERS are flawed figures representing little more than a scorecard for the failure of the UK’s handling of the Scottish economy and the squandering of our North Sea assets. They tell us only of past and present failings, and nothing about our independent future.
Iain Black
VOTERS look for courage, because courage suggests people have the nerve to see things through. The Growth Commission was criticised by one early commentator on Common Space, an economist as I recall, for “bottling it” on the currency.
This is exactly how the voters will see it, especially when our opponents put precisely that point to them.
The weakness, nay the feartie-ness, of sterlingisation is an open goal for our opponents’ delight. Let’s not go there.
I support the Common Weal position on a new Scots currency from day one of independence, however I have my own proposal as regards what it should be called.
I propose we call our currency the Scots dollar (SCD), and that it should constitute 100 Scots pennies and have parity with the English pound on day one of our independence.
In short exactly the same as the Common Weal proposals, only with a far better name.
Why is it a better name? For the following reasons:
1) The Scots dollar is a name which has historical resonance, for we had our own dollar of old, a silver coin originally worth 60 Scots schillings (ie three pounds) from the reign of James VI right up until 1709 when all Scots coinage supposedly ceased to exist;
2) The Scots dollar will have international resonance, joining the Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar, not to mention somebody else;
3) The Scots dollar sounds strong; the pound increasingly does not.
All hail the Scots dollar. Think about it, roll it around in your minds. Doesn’t it sound good?
Norman Easton
Address supplied
COULD Nicola Sturgeon be using the Growth Commission report to damp down demand for indyref 2 and administer a dose of “economic realism” into Scottish politics? If so, she should come clean and say it.
We’re now in the fourth Scottish groundhog season: that period of exam results, GERS schadenfreude and “will she, won’t she” indyref2 speculation at the forthcoming SNP conference which typifies Scotland’s paralysis.
It’s not just GERS or the GCR that highlights the hubris and false claims of the 2014 campaign and the risk-laden challenges of separation, the excellent Commonweal “How to Start a New Country” book does an even better job.
It outlines the effort and costs of the first three years of independence, in defence (£8 billion), pensions and benefits, new currency and reserves (£14.5bn), IT, customs and tax.
The total comes to £25bn, funded by loans and a share of UK assets.
Many more than 55% of the population will now question whether this massive upheaval is worth it.
Where is the compelling event? We’re not a repressed colony and not facing a “reverse Darien” economic collapse.
Scotland needs a collective effort by all parties to fully leverage devolution and a Brexit dividend which gets the best for Scotland in terms of localised powers, jobs and new agency location.
For this to happen Nicola Sturgeon should call time on indyref2 and and start thinking about the 500,000 votes lost in 2017.
This requires a clear statement that indyref2 is off the table for at least 10 years until we see the effects of Brexit and the hard-nosed policies required to fix education, health, housing and the GERS deficit.
It’s taken 20 years get into this mess so another 10 to get us out of it seems reasonable.
No opposition leader would take “maybe” for an answer before putting his party’s weight behind a Sturgeon rescue plan.
Scotland is going nowhere at the moment. The ball is firmly in Nicola Sturgeon’s court. I wouldn’t have her job in a lucky bag.
Allan Sutherland
Stonehaven
WHATEVER you think about the Pope’s visit to Ireland, there is no denying the very fair words of the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who has said of the Catholic Church, “I think it still has a place in our society but not one that determines public policy or determines our laws.”
Neil Barber
Edinburgh Secular Society
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