Monday 27 February 2012
Willie Rennie gets it
When, oh when, are the SNP going to realise that they will not have the full range of fiscal powers that they want if Scotland does not have its own currency? John Swinney is talking through his hat. If he wants 'real independence' he needs to go the whole hog and cut loose from both Westminster and Brussels. We can't have an independent monetary or fiscal policy while tied to sterling or the euro. It just doesn't work. Sharing a currency with another country means agreeing on spending limits, interest rates, acceptable inflation and so on and so on (if we are lucky). If we are unlucky it means having our fiscal policy dictated to us by Germany. If Willie Rennie can grasp that then surely the Finance Secretary can grasp it. No?
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Willie Rennie gets nothing. He wants to pretend that the pro-independence campaign seeks a form of total and unconstrained fiscal and monetary freedom that is the stuff of fantasy. Back in the real world, all that is really being asked is the same degree of control over economic levers as is taken for granted by other independent nations.
ReplyDeleteWell it all boils down to what you mean by independent. Do you want the Greek variety or the Norwegian variety? I'd prefer the latter.
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