Currency union plan was ‘disastrous’, says independence campaign chief
0 The 2014 Yes Scotland campaign chairman Dennis Canavan said the policy was a ‘hostage to fortune’ when the UK government refused to back it The head of the 2014 Scottish independence campaign says its currency policy was “disastrous” and left it a “hostage to fortune” when the UK government refused to back it.
Dennis Canavan has admitted that the currency union proposal effectively left Westminster with a “veto” over the plan. The SNP is now proposing to change its approach and back a separate Scottish currency after independence.
Mr Canavan chaired the Yes Scotland campaign in 2014 and has called for Nicola Sturgeon to hold a second referendum before 2021 and says shortcomings of the last campaign must be addressed.
“We ought to be honest enough and humble enough to admit that mistakes were made,” he told BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland.
“The currency thing, for example, turned out to be disastrous. I mean you cannot have a currency union with another partner unless the other partner agrees to that currency union.
“So it was a hostage to fortune, it was giving our opponents – our unionists opponents – a veto over the policy, so that was a mistake.
“I think that lessons have been learned now, that we’ve got to come up with a better currency option and I’m glad to see that support is growing now and seems to be accepted within the members of the Scottish Government that the idea of an independent currency in Scotland.”
Mr Canavan has recently called for Nicola Sturgeon to seize the initiative and call another independence referendum, given the pro-independence majority among MSPS at Holyrood, combining the SNP and Greens.
“My view for some time has been that we should have a second referendum on Scottish independence within the lifetime of the current Scottish Parliament,” he added. “We could argue that we have a parliamentary mandate for Indyref2.”
Ms Sturgeon is poised to set out her plans for a second referendum at Holyrood next week when Parliament returns from its Easter break. She has said that she wants to hold a second vote on leaving the UK to give Scots an alternative to the turmoil of Brexit. But control over the constitution lies with Westminster and Theresa May has indicated she would not allow a “Section 30” which would give Holyrood the authority to stage such a vote.
Ms Sturgeon last week warned “impatient” nationalists seeking a speedy referendum that it must convince a majority of Scots – and polling evidence still shows most don’t back independence.