IT’S the economy, stoopid. Aye, it is great and very necessary to have a debate on the economy, stoopid. Every nation should have one. Any democracy will naturally have different views on that. That is why we have elections and different parties. So why should Scotland be any different?

The trouble is that we have three allegedly different same parties all united in one thing: Scotland is entitled to nothing. Zero. Zilch. Anyone saying different is automatically baad. No country in the world, except Scotland, bottled it on the question of what kind currency we might have after independence. Ireland didn’t give a damn and adopted the pound Sterling for years anyway, until they agreed on something else to suit.

The word Sterling is from the toon o’ Stirling, where Scotland had one of its royal mints. One of the many broken articles in the Treaty of the so-called “Union” takeover was that Scotland should retain its own mint: another promise with hole in it.

We actually had the inhabitants of the black hole of London, where oor taxes go, say that Scotland could not have independence because of its black hole. Or at least, that was what a supermercat checkoot guy telt me, when I asked why they don’t have enough copies of The National. What black hole? We don’t even have a nation to have a national debt, holy or otherwise.

The basic essentials for human life are food, clothing, shelter and in caulder climates, fuel. Scotland has an abundance of all the resources we need for that, so why the shortage?

We could afford to feed ourselves daily four times over and still have a surplus. In terms of shelter, with only five million puir souls we do not have a population pressure for land. It is owned by a few absentee landlords. They spend most of their time avoiding the place and come back for the Glorious Twelfth to shoot the peasants jumping oot as their low-paid ghillies beat the heather.

House prices here are determined not by materials and labour, but by market values. A broom cupboard in the centre of London is worth much more than a hoose halfway up Ben Stoorie.

As for fuel, name one oil-rich country that is actually poorer for discovering oil, apart from Nigeria. We are fuel rich but don’t have corruption here. Do we?

We have all the resources we need and more. Problem is, we don’t own it. So like everything else, the argument has to move from the dismal science to the political. How do we manage and allocate these resources? Since we don’t, the question is academic. Since we must get the country first, the question is political. Do we have a capitalist economy Mickey Fry-style and let the de’il tak the hindmaist? Or, do we have a communist economy? A mixed economy? Or do we have a “third way” that is allegedly neither communism or capitalism?

The occupying forces in Europe ran a military-style command economy, taking over all the public services and supplies. It worked. General Eisenhower from commander to president gave jobs, housing, education, welfare etc to his returning vets. General MacArthur just wanted to nuke the Chinese Commies during the Korean aftermath.

Now we don’t know if Boris or Donald have the nerve to nuke guinness-knows-who? Still, oor ain wee chez nuke base 20-odd mile frae Glesga is only there for economic reasons, according to the sitting MSP Jackie Baillie, just to give jobs to the local economy.

If we put ten economists in a ferret sack and asked them one simple question, we would have ten different complicated, weasel-like answers and a black hole in the grun. It’s the economy, stoopid.

Donald Anderson
Glasgow