Nick Cohen writes about ‘The Strange Death of Scottish Nationalism’, should Scotland join the Euro, I can’t see anyone wanting to join that toxic mix!

Dear All

There are many hurdles before Scotland can even think about joining the Eurozone.

As a member of the Scottish National Party, the issue of getting a successful vote for independence springs to mind.

That isn’t guaranteed by a long chalk.

But to return to the issue by Nick Cohen, at the Spectator, of course Alex Salmond is right to say if he truly believes it, that:

'I think there are good arguments for joining the euro, but you can only do that when the euro system was stabilised and only when it was to Scotland's economic advantage’.

Unfortunately, the euro cannot be stabilised and given so many countries are in it, there lays the problem.

It would be nice if the euro could be permanently stable but it won’t be; I am sure that Mr. Salmond knows this, so would he leave it if it became unstable and not in Scotland’s economic interests?

If he does, is there a plan ‘Mac B’ for that?

How long would it take him to make up his mind on that question?

If he leaves would his ‘heir in waiting’ Nicola Sturgeon do it if the current situation faced her?

I would suspect that once we are in there won’t be the political will to reverse out of any problems, it takes someone with courage to say, enough is enough.

And we can’t join, leave, re-join, leave, re-join like some basket case.

I am very much pro European in nature, but there are many aspects of the European experiment that are wrong, just like in Scotland, I regard the system as corrupt.

So, at present would it be entirely wrong for Britain to join the euro and entirely wrong for an independent Scotland to join the euro.

No matter what political party holds power.

The system is fatally flawed because external influences (the bankers) effectively control the money supply by their stranglehold on credit and liquidity.

QE is nonsense in my opinion, it fixes nothing.

Scotland would probably end up like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy; we have too big a public sector, out dated models of service, a poor record of reform and sadly no one with any brains to propose something better.

Because if we had we would have heard it by now.

And the sooner people realise that we can’t grow our way out of trouble the sooner a recovery plan with real stable roots can take hold.

Growth is a killer.

That may seem odd but consider this; too many people have put pressure on the current system to near collapse.

Austerity is going to be followed by sheer austerity for the bottom 99% of the population.

The nations within the union need to tackle the internal migration and immigration problems between countries, banking reform, local government reform and a whole host of other rather nasty issues which are going to be very painful.

I haven’t heard anyone in my own party talking about reform as I understand it and as it needs to happen in local government.

But I heard someone do an ‘Obama’ during an interview by parroting out the word ‘change’, my heart sank, change what exactly I thought?

The person kept talking and still I was no wiser.

All together now ‘CHANGE’.

Mind you, there is the reform of the Police and Fire Service to be made into national services.

I proposed that on the 4th September 2010 at the SNP National Assembly in Perth.

I am speaking in a personal capacity and as a humble Glaswegian pottering about the place.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University