PLEASE forgive me for being confused with Professor Murphy’s reported statements that he is no longer for independence and is now a Unionist because he does not support the SNP’s transitional plans on retaining the pound until the Scottish administration is ready to use its own currency.
According to his column in Thursday’s National, he is now saying his concern about the plans does not make him a Unionist. Is it just me imagining things? Is this the biggest U-turn since MsTrust trashed her own currency plans? Or is it comparable to a Jim Murphy’s Lazarus-like resurrection, when he left the Revolutionary Communist Party to become a CIA agent, sorry, New Labourite?
READ MORE: Richard Murphy: Currency concerns don't stop me from supporting Scottish independence
I have nothing against Murphys in general. Some of my best friends are Murphys, including some in the Irish branch. The Murphys became bards to the Clann Donald chiefs and played the clarsach (Highland harp) at Bannockburn urging Bruce’s army on to chase the Sassenachs.
Professor Murphy must surely be aware that Post-indy Ireland used the pound until they were ready to punt it. Our learned friend must also be aware that Irish nationalists had many disagreements and till recently often shot each other, and realise the benefit of a united Ireland and an independent Scotland. We all ken the history of sectarian divide and rule. One hopes the Prof is not shooting himself in his ain fit.
He must also be aware that not one single nation won its independence by bottling it over an argument about currency. So, again, please believe me when I doubt the commitment of any Scottish nationalist or republican when they want to split the movement and leave over this or that policy. Every country must have its different parties after the great day. England may have its (allegedly) different imperial nationalist parties. All can easily and firmly agree with each other when it comes to denying Scotland any basic rights or even a penny of its own money: pounds Sterling, groats, euro or otherwise.
READ MORE: Richard Murphy: SNP currency plans for independence are 'so wrong' I'd switch to No
Alex Salmond, who is no slouch and was often dubbed “Smart Alex” and was a Royal Bank of Scotland economist, was allegedly – according to a hostile Unionist-controlled media – outsmarted and outdebated by former student Scottish republican socialist and MacLeanist Lord Alastair Darling, darling of the imperialist Brit nat media.
Money is only a yardstick for wealth. The real economy rests on a nation’s resources and the skills of its people. We may have more sheep than people, physically and metaphorically, and need more fighters in a land of poverty amidst plenty, but we do not need Doubting Thomases who, in effect, back the the Tories against the real courageous battler, Ms Sturgeon, who battles on against all the odds, internally as well as externally.
Donald Anderson
Glasgow
I CAN’T decide between irritation or amusement where Douglas Ross is concerned, if he wants to compare Scotland to Venezuela or Zimbabwe. Does he never do any homework to study subjects on which he spouts forth?
READ MORE: SNP pan Douglas Ross for independent Scotland and Venezuela comparison
I would suggest he contact New Economics Foundation for a copy of their booklet “ScotPound: digital money for the common good” written by Duncan McCann and Josh Ryan-Collins just a few years ago in collaboration with Common Weal. That might give him an awareness beyond his gloomy opinion as to the potential of a Scottish pound running alongside sterling.
It strikes me that he presents views from a narrow life experience, whereas senior NEF people have had experience in for example the World Bank and international development charities where they gathered first-hand knowledge on the ground of why life in countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe works out as it does.
Catriona de Voil
Arbroath
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