Leading Scotland economist, Jim Cuthbert says Scotland'must have own currency' if it votes for independence, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon’s gross mismanagement and bad judgment is a growing problem of indy campaign

Dear All

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…….

Scratch that, yesterday Hamish popped by to call me a traitor!

In my post to him, I stated:

“What about the SNP currency shambles, a Scottish pound should have been planned for and wasn't, more incompetence”.

And for the record, I have always said there must be a Scottish currency plan; however Alex Salmond who plays the ‘jolly fat man’ routine has been too lazy to set the independence bid up properly.

And what he and Nicola Sturgeon and their hangers on have parroted out has been a load of lying shit.

That’s why independence is dead, the campaign is over; all that the SNP is doing is a face saving exercise for Salmond and Sturgeon, a pair of buffoons.

Jim Cuthbert is well known, he says the SNP must develop plans to create a new currency if Scotland becomes independent.

Cuthbert is a leading economist.

As such he concludes that the Nationalists' economic strategy should be rethought and reversed before the referendum.

The reason is quite simple; it is incompetent, much like other areas of SNP Government policy.

In a report for the left-wing Jimmy Reid Foundation he argues that SNP plans to keep the pound by entering a currency union with the UK would expose Scotland to the "high likelihood of a potentially catastrophic crisis in the not-too-distant future".

Patently he sees the same problems I do; which rather shows up ‘the talent’ which Alex Salmond so readily says is available to him.

Mr Cuthbert said:

"Far from implicitly accepting the strength of the UK economy, Nationalists should be adapting their thinking to the implications of the UK's economic problems. They should be stressing the UK economy's weakness and instability. They should be developing a strategy which points out the benefits of Scotland ultimately having its own currency."

Mr Cuthbert argues the UK economy has been badly run over the past 40 years, I think that many people would agree with that assessment, Germany on the other hand has done marvelously well; they have kept a strong manufacturing base and prospered.

Britain has become too reliant on the financial services sector.

As we have seen if you want to commit banking fraud then the City of London is the key destination for market manipulation.

London is the ponzi scheme capital of the world.

Banking should have been regulated properly both the Labour Party and SNP fell into the trap of ‘light touch’.

Presumably Alex Salmond thought by riding the ponzi wave without checking out the facts he was a financial genius.

Salmond backed Royal Bank of Scotland to succeed in its takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro which was a massive bad judgment on his part.

You can read all about it in this Telegraph piece by Alan Cochrane:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9055724/With-friends-like-Salmond-Fred-didnt-need-enemies.html

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said:

"The foundation's conclusions raise very serious questions about how a separate Scotland's economy would function. The entire economic policy of separation under the SNP is to rely upon oil and gas. The Scottish economy is dramatically weaker, compared to the rest of the UK, when you exclude North Sea production."

Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown said:

"The criticism of SNP plans for separation, both economic and non-economic, is getting louder by the week."

An independent Scotland needs a Scottish pound, but prior to that bunny hopping about on the world stage, the SNP Government needed to set Scotland up for independence.

They have singily failed to do this at any level, although I support Scottish independence, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon prove and continually prove they are out of their depth.

Salmond thought independence could be won by a virtual campaign consisting of spin, hype, balloons, waving wee Scottish flags and hijack sporting events and ancient battles to have an emotional reaction for the vote in 2014.

The spin and hype have backed fired on him and Scotland’s unpopular Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Ages ago I said right at the start, SNP need to plan for a Scottish Pound, today, Jim Cuthbert, leading economist agrees with me, not bad at all for someone who hasn’t served on even a community council.

Alex Salmond served in both Westminster and Holyrood, runs the government of Scotland and is still utterly clueless.

But George Laird gets it right again.

I wonder if Hamish will call Jim Cuthbert a traitor for getting it right as well or will he join the growing band of people that know that Salmond and Sturgeon have played them for mugs?

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University