Carney clear on currency union risks

WHY Stan Grodynski (Letters, 15 August) thinks it is “headline news” that Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has “not ruled out a currency union” is difficult to fathom. Mr Carney made his views on a currency union clear some months ago.

Moreover, Mr Grodynski is wrong in thinking that Mark Carney has the power to rule out or rule in a currency union. Politicians – of whom Mr Salmond would not be one – would decide if an independent Scotland should have a currency union.

Mr Carney will operate on whatever basis is determined by the Treasury. It is not up to him “to keep the door ajar”. He has made that abundantly clear.

Nor is it news that there is a risk of a deposit flight in the event of a Yes vote. The only news in the recent announcement is that Mr Carney has made contingency plans because of the risks and uncertainty that would follow if Scots vote for independence.

Mr Grodynski sets great store by Mr Carney’s “carefully considered remarks”. What are his views on Mr Carney’s equally considered remarks that a currency union requires considerable fiscal and political union if it is to operate successfully?

Why has no Yes supporter answered the question raised by one of their own, Jim Fairlie, on more than one occasion in this column?

A currency union does not deliver independence. Can Mr Grodynski or any other Yes supporter please explain why they want semi-independence.

COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue

Edinburgh STAN Grodynski comments on the “scurrilously manufactured concern about a ‘Currency Plan B’ that should now be finally put to rest” following the comments made by Mark Carney.

There is no Plan B to be affected by such “scurrilous comments”, and again independence supporters ignore the crucial comments made by the Governor on his visit to Scotland in January when he said that “in short, a durable, successful currency union requires some ceding of national sovereignty”.

The First Minister has resolutely declined to offer the Scottish people any comment at all in answer to the Governor’s comments, never mind a Plan B. The Collins

Dictionary describes independence as being “free from control in action, judgment etc” and “not dependent on anything else for function, validity etc”.

Surely the most fervent of Yes supporters must accept that a currency union with a foreign bank as lender of last resort with powers to set and vary interest rates for the benefit of the whole of the United Kingdom means that the case for independence can finally be put to rest.

RICHARD ALLISON Braehead Loan

Edinburgh