Scottish independence: Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon’s economic illiteracy sees 3bn wiped off the value of Scottish companies in one day, now 40,000 jobs are at risk, Scotland and its people stand on edge of a financial abyss, this is our darkest hour

Dear All

You may remember, I wrote two articles on ‘White collar flight’, part one and two, the jist is that businesses would be so adversely affected by the Scottish independence referendum that they and their investors would refuse to put money into Scotland.

The World turned between me writing those pieces and now we see that billions of pounds have been wiped off the value of Scotland's biggest businesses. Capital flight is now in progress as of this Monday, it is understandable just as it was foreseen by many people including myself. The financial markets have rejected Scotland as a destination for investment in the likelihood of independence.

This is a serious problem.

Major Companies such as Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, and Standard Life who are based in Edinburgh saw their share price dropped by hundreds of millions as investors flogged shares en masse.

The knock on effect also meant that the pound also slumped. It is now at its lowest level against the dollar since November. It could end up dropping further undoing all the good work to fix the economic problems of the 2008 financial crash.

Douglas Alexander, Labour's shadow Foreign Secretary, said:

"Today the economic costs of separation became real. I have real concerns that the reaction of the markets to one poll suggests the problems we would see if we actually left the UK."

One wonders if anyone at the Scottish National Party now deeply regrets not planning for independence now!

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner and New York Times commentator has issued a dire warning to Scots to be "afraid, very afraid" of independence.

He added:

"The risks of going it alone are huge. You may think that Scotland can become another Canada, but it’s all too likely that it would end up becoming Spain without the sunshine."

The Nationalists refusing to accept responsibility for the start of Capital flight attempted to put the blame on George Osborne's refusal to share the pound if Scotland became independence. That is slightly less ridiculous than SNP MSP Christine Grahame who said the fall in the pound was due to Barack Obama and Syria. How she arrived that at conclusion is anyone’s guess, but it reeks of economic illiteracy and highlights my point of a genuine lack of talent in the Scottish National Party.

You may have noticed that Hamish ‘the Nationalist’ dropped by yesterday and I did a reply to him regarding the ‘good news’ poll which shows the Nationalists appearing to be making progress.

Well Hamish, what is your reaction to Capital flight?

Due to the gross stupidity of Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon hundreds of millions of pounds have dropped in the value of Scottish companies. Can you pop a cheque in the post because you have a spare couple of billion under the mattress right?

Paul Krugman added:

"In short, everything that has happened in Europe since 2009 or so has demonstrated that sharing a currency without sharing a government is very dangerous. And an independent Scotland using Britain’s pound would be in even worse shape than euro countries, which at least have some say in how the European Central Bank is run. I find it mind-boggling that Scotland would consider going down this path after all that has happened in the last few years. If Scottish voters really believe that it’s safe to become a country without a currency, they have been badly misled."

Translated that means the entire country would be in deep shit!

Time for a quote by Alex Salmond:

“My problem is that I have too many talented people and not enough Cabinet positions”!

The SNP Ministers are so ‘talented’ they think a country without a currency is viable; Scotland would be ruined for generations because of what is happening at the moment if it wasn’t part of the United Kingdom.  

Ian McDougall, board member of the pro-independence group Business for Scotland, said:

"A 0.4 per cent variation against the dollar caused by hedgefund speculation isn’t much of a story."

Try telling that to people who have their savings, shares, mortgages and pensions in banks and in major businesses. They are seeing their future literally being taken away from them piece by piece. Apparently billions of pounds have been wiped off the value of Scotland's biggest businesses isn’t a problem, which begs the question, what would it take to make McDougall concerned?

Like there is no Plan B for currency, there are no Plans to protect Scots, Krugman floated the idea of Scotland being like Spain; I would say go slightly more East towards Greece. Post independence defeat, Alex Salmond has got to be removed by the Scottish National Party or better still members should recognise that the SNP is a collapsing market and not invest in it.

Yesterday, John Swinney’s reputation took another hit; he should have pressed for complete financial plans to have been produced. The referendum must continue to its conclusion but you can only wonder how much more damage will be caused between now and the 18^th September. Scotland’s businesses have lost billions of pounds of value, how much more will they lose and will this spread to other companies affecting their worth.  

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University