“BE patient” can be reasonable advice, if there’s a clear length of time to be patient for. “Be patient, the bus will be here in twenty minutes”, or “Be patient, we’ve set a date for another independence vote, in nine months’ time”.
But “Be patient, at some point in the future Westminster might allow Scotland to hold another independence vote” isn’t just cravenly subservient, it’s not even convincing on a tactical level.
It’s the political equivalent of “Be patient, keep standing at this bus stop, although there’s no timetable displayed, and we’re not even sure if this stop is still in use, but, you never know, maybe at some point a bus might come along, and it might stop, if you wave your arm while looking pathetic enough”.
A person given this advice would be perfectly reasonable in responding: “Stuff that, I’m not standing here waiting for a bus that might never come.”
Patience only works if there’s a timetable. If there isn’t a timetable, the Scottish Parliament needs to draw one up. If the Scottish Government is waiting for Westminster to take the initiative, they might as well go find a discontinued bus stop to hang around.
Waiting for “maybe at some point if somebody else lets us” isn’t patience, it’s paralysis. Scotland can’t hang around for the Never-Ending-Brexit-Story. The Westminster clown-show is too busy to even think about us, never mind plan indyref2. Let them get on with their pie-fight. With or without any agreement from Westminster, Scotland needs to get on with organising a new referendum on independence NOW.
Dave Coull
via thenational.scot
AT last we are seeing some flesh being put on the bones.
It’s good to see that Nicola Sturgeon is tackling the fiscal/economic debate of an independent Scotland in such an open manner. The founding of a new self-sufficient fiscal structure is an extremely complex task, and open to attack because a number of questions cannot be answered with 100% probability until after independence is achieved.
For example, a national central bank cannot fully function until it is backed by national assets, absolute levels of tax returns and the ability to raise funds on the international money markets. A close workable figure can be issued on the back of devolved government projections but watertight figures cannot be given until after independence. This is because the above amounts will also be dependent on the future economic structure to be implemented by the government.
This, however, is not a negative because Scotland has a wealth of opportunity that can be tapped and opened up. At present the devolved fiscal figures only represent a relatively closed economy that is and has been milked by Westminster.
The main thing is that we keep moving forward at a pace and strike while the iron is hot, and get this monkey off our backs.
Finlay Smillie
via thenational.scot
I READ the First Minister’s article in Saturday’s National with a sinking heart. Her vision of an independent Scotland is a poor and uninspiring thing, a sop to the bankers. Ever since I read the Growth Commission report I have hoped that sense would prevail and it would be cast aside for the neo-liberal cancer that it is.
My final hope is that the SNP delegates will trash it at the conference. If not, then I will no longer give my support to the cause for independence. There is no sense in handing over our new economy to the same old bankers for them to exploit. The whole reason for independence is to have a clean sheet on which to write a new, positive and egalitarian ethos, free of the control of Westminster and the grasping hands of the corrupt financial industry.
I am one of the Yes Bikers for Scottish Independence and I’ve experienced the wonderful optimism of the AUOB marches. The Scottish Government’s approval for Andrew Wilson and his dreadful report have crushed that optimism in me and I’m sad for my adopted country’s future.
Tony Perridge
Inverness
FOR the first time, I now fully believe that independence will happen very soon. Nicola, at last, has set out very clearly and concisely for us all to see what we will be as an independent country and how we go about making it so. Now the way is clear, there is work to be done, let’s get on with it. Saor Alba!
Bill Middleton
Denny
I HOPE that conference rejects the six tests and this “solidarity payment” soundly – this is a blueprint for kneecapping an indy Scotland right from the start. It’s a plan for failure. We need to be bolder, not more timid.
Ian Lowe
via thenational.scot
SURELY the test of the plan will be if Scottish voters who are not already committed to the SNP cause can buy into it? They are the ones who we need to persuade to get us over the line.
Daibhidh Beaton
via thenational.scot
PROFESSOR Richard Murphy’s conclusions on the the neo-liberal Sustainable Growth Commission recommendations of Andrew Wilson so supported by Nicola Sturgeon are clear; it would lead to economic disaster for Scotland. We would have no economic independence, in that according to Professor Richard Murphy the Bank of England would dictate our monetary policy by setting Scotland’s interest rates and the City of London would determine Scotland’s economic policy as long as we are involved with sterlingisation.
The thrust of Sturgeon’s article that we could choose our own currency within the lifetime of the first independent Scottish Parliament would not happen, as we would fail the six tests that are set because the pound sterling is in long-term decline and we would be still part of the failing Brexit UK economy.
Instead, what should happen following a successful second independence referendum is that we should be negotiating with the rest of the UK the allocation of assets and setting up new institutions such as a Scottish Central Bank meaning that there would be a period of transition of two to three years before Scotland would be fully independent and therefore more than enough time to set up a new Scottish currency starting from day one of Scottish independence.
Having our own currency and central bank from day one of Scottish independence will ensure that we the people of Scotland will control our own spending, borrowing and taxation so that we can print our own currency to have first-class public services and introduce a wealth tax for the rich to pay. In this way we will control our own economic destiny instead of placing it in the hands of greedy bankers in London, as being in sterlingisation would lead to economic disaster.
Sean Clerkin
Glasgow
WHEN politicians talk about tests I am reminded of May’s red lines and what they did to the Brexit debate! What happened to the SNP boldness? The six tests are in danger of becoming tablets of stone rather than guidance. Time has moved on since the Growth Commission report and so should the SNP!
James Anderson
via thenational.scot
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