Why A Scottish-UK Currency Union Is Not A Good Idea
Cam Hui | Sep 05, 2014 12:56AM ET
Speaking as a Canadian who has seen several Quebec referendums on sovereignty, let me put in my two cents worth on the prospect of a Scottish currency union with the rest of the UK. Guardian ):
Any negotiations on a currency union would involve major concessions by both sides. The UK would have to abandon the clear commitments of Osborne, Alexander and Balls. But Salmond would have to acknowledge for the first time that joining a currency union would involve the loss of some sovereignty after Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said in Edinburgh in January: "A durable, successful currency union requires some ceding of national sovereignty."
During the debate leading up to Quebec referendums, the Oui side has always held out the siren song of an independent Quebec using the Canadian Dollar as a currency. Nothing will change, they assured the Quebecois. However, serious sovereigntists who have studied the issue have concluded that Quebec needed its own currency in order to be truly independent.
If the referendum were to pass, adopting the another currency for use in a newly independent country is an idiot idea, for both Quebec and Scotland. An currency and economic union without a political union is a potential disaster in the making. But then, the last time Europe saw both an economic and political union was in 1941 under Hitler - and look how well that turned out.
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