SCOTTISH independence “feels like” Brexit to voters, according to a BBC journalist who criticised the lack of detail in the government’s economic arguments for Yes.
John Swinney was grilled on the economic case for independence, released earlier this month, which dealt with questions around future cross-Border trade with England, establishing a Scottish currency and re-joining the EU.
But it was criticised by both Unionists and Yessers for a lack of detail on some key questions, chiefly the absence of a timetable for establishing a new currency, which would effectively leave a newly independent Scotland tied to the economic policies of the UK indefinitely.
‘From a voter’s perspective Scottish Independence feels like Brexit’ The brass neck of BBC proposing, without any evidence whatsoever, Scotland running its own affairs would be worse than leaving our future to the madhouse down south, and in this week of all weeks. #bbcsundayshow pic.twitter.com/GO2dQxtiLx
— Phantom Power (@PhantomPower14) October 23, 2022
Sunday Show host Martin Geissler accused the Scottish Government of acting like the Brexit campaign had, claiming key pledges lacked “certainty or security”.
He said: “I know you guys hate any comparison with Brexit but let me just put it to you that from a voters’ perspective, this feels a bit like the uncertainty of Brexit, doesn’t it?
“It’s got all the difficult, nasty negotiations, it’s got all the risks multiplied many times over and just like Brexit, you’re asking the voters to buy something without knowing what it looks or feels like.”
Scotland's route back to Europe
Swinney replied it was “pretty obvious” Scotland would be welcomed back into the European Union following independence.
He added: “The European Union has a track record of welcoming independent states. And a number of key figures in the European Union – not least of which the former president of the European Council Donald Tusk – made it very clear that Scotland’s access to the European Union would be very straightforward.”
Geissler interjected that entering the EU would be contingent on establishing a new currency – a timescale for which the Scottish Government has refused to give.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said putting a deadline on the creation of a Scottish pound would “undermine” the process envisaged for adopting the currency, which will focus on assessing financial stability and market confidence in Scotland rather than following a timeline.
But Scotland would be unable to join the EU until such time as it stopped sharing the pound.
Asked whether it could be as long as a decade before Scotland established a new currency, Swinney said: “I don’t think that would be likely at all.
“I think what will happen is that we will take the incremental steps that I have set out, of establishing a Scottish central bank on the day one of independence, to begin to establish the institutional credibility that enables us to establish a Scots currency.
“That will build on the achievements we’ve already made in establishing a well-functioning tax and social security system within Scotland under the current arrangements, all of which are performing well.
“We’ve got credibility as a government – well to be fair to governments of all political colours in Scotland – for 22 years of living within our resources. That gives fiscal credibility to the Scottish Government.“Build that onto an independent central bank and that begins to build the financial credibility that is essential – and which has been squandered by the Conservative Party by its behaviour in recent weeks.”
Poll position
Geissler also claimed support for independence had not grown for independence despite a number of recent polls showing increased and increasing support for Yes – or narrowing leads for the Union.
Swinney suggested that the incremental movements in polling numbers overall had been caused by the absence of an independence campaign in earnest.
He said: “I think we’ve got to engage people on these questions and to provide the information and the discussion and the debate about the future of Scotland.
“And obviously as we saw during the referendum in 2014, when people become engaged in facing the actual question of having to decide whether they want Scotland to be an independent country, we saw massive increases in Yes support during the course of that referendum campaign. We went from something like 30% support at the start of the referendum [campaign] to 45% support during the referendum, when people were actively engaged in the question.
“Now, today, we start from a base where support for independence is of the order of 50% within Scotland and we have the opportunity to build on that, during the debate on the questions that face our country.”
Speaking to The National, Alba general secretary Chris McEleny said: "It’s supposed to be the job of BBC journalists to present the facts, not present their opinions as news.
"Martin Geissler is a first class and much respected journalist but he should be less modest going forward and make more of his hidden mind reading skills.
“At a time that the UK Government and British establishment that delivered Brexit is ripping itself apart, it is absurd that the BBC are attempting to do their bidding by talking down Scottish independence, something that people across Scotland are increasingly seeing as the only way to escape the chaos of Westminster”
