Scots to adopt new currency ‘within months’ of independence, says Ash Regan
The leadership candidate says an independent Scotland would dump the pound but her ‘absurd’ policy has been described as ‘for the birds’
It is perhaps the only one of the Tater’s ideas that has merit. Yes, Scotland would want its own currency.
Of course there’s a slight problem with this, which is that if Scotland then follows any other of the Tater’s advice then the ScotPound will rapidly become the Bawbie:
A bawbee was a Scottish sixpence. The word means a debased copper coin, valued at six pence
Sixpence Scots, which ended up at about halfpence English.
about halfpence English
I hope you realise, Tim, that you’ve just earned some departed monk an increase of an æon in his purgatorial tarriff.
I’d have thought they’d want their ‘own’ currency to be the Euro
> I’d have thought they’d want their ‘own’ currency to be the Euro
Oh they do (well a significant % do anyway) – its just they have a problem in that the (current) joining Euro rules mean they need their own currency first and meet the other fiscal rules. Of course some believe that the EU will just change their rules because Scotland is special…
In all this mess, nobody has the sense to say “look, we have pre-existing case histories to guide us, eg Ireland in the 1920s, Australia in the 1960s”.
“Of course some believe that the EU will just change their rules ”
They kind of did to accommodate Italy and Greece into the Euro, which went well…
They changed the rules to accommodate everyone save for Luxembourg. No reason why they wouldn’t do the same for Scotland.
> some believe that the EU will just change their rules because Scotland is special…
Scotland certainly is special 🙂
I do wonder why the Scots are so famous for being frugal when Scotland joined with England after going bankrupt.
Perhaps this was due to the lesson learned, and then it was unlearned…
Spotted online earlier today: obviously the Scotch currency will be the Giro.
@M
Wasn’t that when James and his court arrived in England with their arses hanging out of their trousers people assumed their appearance was due to meanness rather than being as poor as church mice?
All mouth and no trousers.
What’s this sh¡te about a referendum? You’ve got a ruling party of Nationalists, just declare independence.
@Mark
If arses were hanging out I’m surprised they didn’t draw the obvious conclusion about propensities.
It was hardly unknown at the time, though likely more indulged in by the upper classes (who had more time to do the indulging I suppose).
On a more serious note I now remember that was that failed attempt at a colony in Panama.
“I hope you realise, Tim, that you’ve just earned some departed monk an increase of an æon in his purgatorial tarriff.”
I reckon Dom Hilary will be fine. His mantra of “Beginning, middle, end. Three facts, one joke and one argument with a conclusion” has got me through 20 years of freelance journalism quite nicely.
>They changed the rules to accommodate everyone save for Luxembourg. No reason why they wouldn’t do the same for Scotland.
I suppose that if it was just a question of bending the rules to allow them to go straight to the Euro, that would be a possibility, but I suspect the double digit deficit currently being run might be a harder hurdle to get passed the euro gatekeepers. Of course Scotland could work to reduce that deficit in advance except of course:
1. That would be painful and probably reduce significantly the support for independence and the SNP – and the latter would hurt…
2. It would take time and require a focus on building the economy up rather the dolling out money to their mates. To much like hard work.
MStNC
The dodgier Euro candidates qualified by
Massive book cooking
Even massiver FX swaps against the Deutschmark, shaving enough off of their deficits to clear the conditions.
Creative accountancy makes the EU’s wirld go round.
I would imagine they would say the deficit belonged to U.K. and they should be treated as starting with a blank slate and the EU would insist on some ongoing financial settlement from U.K. which they would be stupid enough to agree to, it would be the Brexit bill all over again
They got around the deficit requirement by allowing states that were “on the right path” or similar. You couldn’t have Belgium excluded after all (amongst others).
Besides, the day after you join the Eurozone you can do whatever anyway.
Love the idea of “Euro Gatekeepers”.