Letters / Millstone
At last, proof, if proof were needed that a No vote will save thousands of jobs on the Clyde, but still we get the romantic notions of Braveheart derived propaganda from Nicola Sturgeon.
BAE Systems has unveiled detailed plans for a £200 million “frigate factory” that it hopes will secure shipbuilding on the Clyde for decades.
The defence giant has given its clearest signal yet that it aims to build a new generation of Royal Navy warships at a proposed “world-class facility” at its Scotstoun yard in Glasgow.
BAE Systems and the UK government will not announce a final decision on the factory or the new Type 26 frigates it will make until shortly after September’s independence referendum.
The SNP argues it would be impractical for the Royal Navy to insist its warships are made in England after independence.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the proposed Scotstoun investment, but insisted Govan must be safeguarded.
She said: “It is ironic that we have Better Together leafleting in Govan saying vote No to save Govan.”
Only she could be so blind so as not to see that the only way to save Govan and Scostoun is to vote No, as ministry of defence officials will have a huge say over whether BAE Systems builds the ships in Scotland and whether it does so at the proposed new facility in Scotstoun or, under a Plan B, across both Glasgow yards.
Especially when voting Yes will mean all these valuable jobs and the proposed investment will go to the south of England, so one more massive and positive reason to vote No.
Another reason to vote No is that a separated Scotland has only four realistic currency options.
Plan A is to beg Westminster to underwrite the Scottish economy via the Bank of England, letting us keep the pound more or less as we do now at the price of becoming a Crown Dependency.
Plan B is to use the pound unofficially; this give Scotland the advantage of trading in hard currency but with out a central bank, which means that the next economic shock would break us.
This unofficial arrangement is used in Panama, Zimbabwe and Kosovo, do we really want join this kind of club?
Plan C is to use the Euro; again this could be official or unofficial.
To do it officially will mean jumping through some pretty tight hoops, which will be set by the EU before we gain membership.
Plan D is to use our own currency, which we will for ironic reasons call the millstone (Salmond’s name for the pound which he now so keen to keep).
Scotland’s millstone would be in for a very rocky ride, causing unpredictable price hikes and interest rate fluctuations.
No one in their right mind is going to want any of the above; therefore the best currency option is to be found in the full union that we have at present with the UK.
Above we have two extremely positive reasons to vote No, and I am still waiting for one single reason to vote Yes from Douglas Young.
Gordon Harmer,
Brae.
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