Dear All
Money is pretty important for most of us, in the context of
a country, money takes on more than just value it has to buy goods and
services. Money in the 21st Century is a weapon. If you follow news,
the political agenda is dominated by it day in and day out, not just in this
country but in every country.
In the past, people thought of warfare in the traditional
sense of guns, bullets, rockets, tanks and planes. This Century will be marked
by a new type of warfare, ‘financial warfare’, countries conquered not by
violence but by economics.
The Chinese Government don’t get enough credit for their
achievements in this field.
They went to Africa and
conquered many areas, rather than bomb their way to take over; they went the
other way, and build schools, roads and hospitals to spread their influence
along with factories. People could certainly learn from their low key approach
in how they secure materials for their country.
Today, I caught First Minister’ Question time, the event
itself is a farce and an affront to democracy, however the currency issue was
raised yet again because on Tuesday, Alex Salmond was nailed to the wall on it
by Alistair Darling in a TV debate.
One person I know in passing decided to question me on
politics tonight as he found the answers from Salmond to be shockingly poor in
the STV face off. Tuesday night certainly opened his eyes where Alex Salmond
was concerned.
Anyway, what caught my interest in the FMQs was the look on
the faces of the SNP MSPs sitting in on it to give him ‘support’. They looked
dejected, miserable and were hanging their heads. The SNP know the game is
over, they will still go through the motions but they must know from polling
they face not only defeat but humiliation.
Which is why she was sitting with her face like thunder,
like someone had run over her pet rabbit and kept on trucking, overcome by joy
and happiness? There has been some talk of replacing Salmond in the debates
with Sturgeon, anyone really want to see her ridiculous spectacle of shouting
people down?
I think not, Salmond is the lamb and the lamb is to be
slaughtered.
Having botched the entire campaign, the main theme which has
emerged is currency; the correct solution was the Scottish pound that should
have been Plan A from the start. If the UK
had wanted or suggested currency union, it would have to be looked at, but they
don’t want that politically and neither do the majority of people in the rest
of the UK .
Partnership requires trust and goodwill; Salmond stupidly threw trust and
goodwill under the bus by stating he will default of Scotland ’s
share of the UK
debt.
Although there are many examples of stupidity this one will
linger in the minds of people long after the Scottish independence referendum
has gone. You could say that Salmond has pushed Scotland ’s major banks into
considering quitting the country after independence. It seems Salmond’s
rhetoric of “its Scotland ’s
pound” in a Panama-style approach without the UK ’s agreement has sent alarm bells
ringing in business.
The so-called “dollarisation” approach would be more proof
that the SNP intend to take Scotland
into the Euro in order to have the European Central Bank as their “lender of
last resort”. The problem with this is that the EU may shut Scotland out
via the veto. In order to safeguard business UK
regulators and the banks’ shareholders would insist that major institutions
seen as “too big to fail”, like RBS and Lloyds, would need to be located in the
UK .
Awhile ago I did a post on ‘white collar flight’, basically
the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) just confirms my
thoughts, big business doesn’t like risk for no reward. And anyone with any
sense who heard Salmond effectively brag about having no plans for independence
must have thought what kind of crackpot think this would pass as ‘fine with
me’?
Although Alex Salmond is under pressure this week to set out
his Plan B on currency, that isn’t the real question, why do the SNP want to
take Scotland
into the Euro? The decision is and always has been political. The lesson of
what happen to Greece
plainly didn’t sink in at the SNP; maybe it is because some people are learning
impaired or maybe they just live in denial because they think Salmond and
Sturgeon have all the answers. They have answers alright; the problem is that
they aren’t the answers to the questions being asked. Dollarisation can only be
a temporary measure because of the scale Scotland ’s financial service
industry, and it would be a last resort. A country needs its own currency, the
system in the UK
works well because of integration; it isn’t perfect politically or regulatory
because its flaws were exposed in the financial crisis.
Alex Salmond’s threat to walk away from Scotlnd’s share of
UK debt could also see Scotland frozen out of the international markets and
struggle to gain EU membership, each year of non EU membership would mean an
annual loss of £300 million just on the UK rebate alone coming to Scotland,
plus no EU grants for development or farming subsides. Both rural and urban Scotland would
suffer. It would take decades to build up a full funded reserve and then there
is the ‘Oil Fund’ which the SNP hark on about, with so much money ring fenced
cuts to budgets and higher taxes must come to balance austerity budgets.
As I previously blogged, the second term of the SNP
Government should have been about government and local government reforms to
prepare the country for an independence bid.
Nothing was done on that issue!
It has been said that Scotland ’s unpopular Deputy First
Minster Nicola Sturgeon has been briefing against Alex Salmond by Johann Lamont
although this would be highly amusing, we should remember that Ms. Sturgeon
isn’t likeable and as such doesn’t tick the right boxes. Nicola won’t be ‘saving
the day’ because the day has already been lost.
And you can take that to the bank!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at
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