SNP needs to make up mind on Indy currency

Whilst Sir John Kay has helped stimulate some debate on the question of the currency in an independent Scotland, his Edinburgh Book Festival talk reminds us just how complex this matter is (your report, 19 August).

To be persuasive, the case for a new currency needs the merit of simplicity. The suggestion that the new arrangement should not be compulsory for people or businesses couldleadtoconfusionamong non-economists about how it would work in practice. But Sir John should be praised for reminding us that, post-independence, there would be may contractual issues which might take years to resolve – issues that could have a serious impact on pensions, savings and mortgages.

In2014theyescasewasonthe defensive as soon as the then Chancellor George Osborne and then Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls announced that a newly independent state would not be allowed to use the pound. It was just unrealistic to have different tax and spending regimes under the same currency. It seems that modern SNP thinking has not overcome this problem. Andrew Wilson's Sustainable Growth Commission wanted to keep Sterling for a period of at least ten years after autonomy. Vaguely, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon suggests that keeping the pound is an outdated strategy.

Well, she and her advisers need to make their mind up quickly. For even if a legally watertight referendum was to take place next year, the holes in the SNP approach would be cruelly exposed. The 2014 scenario could easily repeat itself. The same group of voters who were prepared to back the party to run the Holyrood government were not prepared to see their incomes put at risk because of currency uncertainty. There is no reason to suppose their view has changed.

BOB TAYLOR Glenrothes, Fife