Whatever happened to Braveheart? Time was when the debate about Scottish independence was all about heroic issues like freedom, national destiny, culture. Even the mild-mannered former leader of the SNP, Gordon Wilson, used to talk of it being a “revolutionary” party. Not any more. Nowadays the independence debate seems to be all about the small change, literally, of national liberation - the currency.
Right now, the biggest issue in the referendum campaign is whether or not Scotland should keep the pound.. Arguments about North Sea Oil, the armed forces, Trident etc have been eclipsed by a row over whether or not Scotland could, or should remain in monetary union with England, as the SNP wish. The former Labour Chancellor, Alistair Darling, who will be launching the anti-independence Better Together campaign on Monday, claims that Scotland would suffer “economic serfdom” if it retained sterling after independence. And anyway, he says, England wouldn’t allow an independent Scotland to keep the pound.
Nonsense, say the Nationalists. Wha’s to stop us keeping the bonny pound? Scotland will prosper in a new Britain as Scots and English share a common monetary destiny. At least for the time being. Not everyone thinks this is plausible. Professor John Kay, a former member of Alex Salmond’s council of economic advisers, suggested this week that Scotland might have to consider setting up its own currency, like Norway or Denmark, rather than remain under the heel of the Bank of England Nobody seems to talk about joining the euro any more, for obvious reasons, which is unfortunate because there is an argument that, if EMU survives, Scotland could benefit from being in it.
