‘Why create all of these problems?’

YOU might be surprised to hear this from the guy who ran the campaign against leaving the UK but for once the SNP deserve points for honesty.

In 2014, the SNP lost a referendum offering more money for public services and keeping the pound. Scots didn’t believe them.

In 2018, they are offering less money for public services and getting rid of the pound. This time we might believe them more – but would we want it?

Nicola Sturgeon has finally answered the question Alex Salmond wouldn’t. She has told us what Plan B is on currency. It ain’t pretty.

While we wait for a separate Scottish currency to be ready, we would do without a central bank. Scotland would be the only advanced economy in the world without a currency of our own. There are good reasons all the other countries don’t do this.

Firstly, if a bank gets into trouble, like when RBS nearly collapsed, there would be no insurance policy. People could lose everything.

Rather than risk it, the banks in Edinburgh would move south, taking thousands of good jobs with them.

Without the strength of having a currency we control, Scotland would need to save up billions of pounds.

The SNP have published 350 pages of analysis on how to deal with losing the pound and funding that comes from down south.

These are problems that must be solved in SNP minds because independence must happen.

It’s more sensible to ask why we would leave the UK and create these problems in the first place. ● Blair McDougall was campaign director for Better Together between 2012 and 2014.