NOT rushing into creating a new currency or tying the development of a Scottish pound to arbitrary timescales is vital for the independence movement to win over undecided voters, the Scottish Greens have insisted.
Speaking exclusively with the Sunday National, the party’s finance spokesperson Ross Greer said showing No voters and those still on the constitutional fence that Yes is the side of stability, competence and success will dismantle the case for the Union.
The party came under fire from Unionist papers last week after the launch of a broad brushstrokes document was launched, the first of a series of papers, renewing the Green case for Yes, with critics calling it light on detail and seizing on its failure to make any mention of currency.
It is an issue which has dogged the independence movement and most concede it is a key reason Yes lost in 2014.
While some Yessers – like SNP member and chair of the Scottish Currency Group Tim Rideout – have demanded a new Scottish pound is operational from day one of an independent Scotland, the official case from the government takes a far more cautious stance on the issue.
Last month, Nicola Sturgeon outlined key tests that would need to be met before a new currency could be adopted – but was unable to say exactly when it would be introduced.
Greer, pictured, insisted this approach was key if Yes hoped to win the next vote, which would take place in less than a year’s time if the Supreme Court granted a referendum.
He said: “Having the Yes movement constantly put that pressure on the government is really useful.
“It’s for the movement as a whole, though to think about getting the balance right here, recognising that there are still people that we need to persuade.
“Remember we still need to do this in a way that is successful.
“Folk who are concerned that we might not be moving fast enough are hardly likely to vote No as a result of that.
“They provide a really useful pressure here – it’s useful for the Scottish Government and the Greens and the SNP to have the Yes movement constantly encouraging us to go as fast as we possibly can.
“We all get the urgency, we all get the urgent need to become an independent country.”
He pointed to the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss as an example of what happens to politicians who attempt to impose their agenda without any consideration of the wider economic or political context.
Greer said the SNP had caught up with the Greens’ position on currency – with the party when under the leadership of Alex Salmond advocating for Scotland to use sterling post-independence, regardless of whether an agreement was struck with Westminster to do so.
This is now viewed as deeply undesirable option among most in the independence movement, who prefer the extra sovereignty that an independent currency would grant.
But having no date for its introduction also means the Yes side cannot say for sure when Scotland would re-join the EU – with potential member states barred from using another country’s money.
Greer said: “I totally get why people would want us to lay out a specific timeline – I want to move towards that currency as soon as possible. But the last thing we want to do is rush it.
“What we want is the best possible outcome here, the greatest level of stability and to get towards that point of independence in monetary at the right moment.”
He added: “For folk in the independence movement who want to get on with this at pace, I get why that might be frustrating.
“I am one of those people who wants us to do this as soon as we possibly can, I want to be independent in every sense as soon as we possibly can.
“But the key thing for us to do here is to make independence a success. We want this to work.
“Nailing down a specific date and time now wouldn’t be a responsible way to actually go about delivering that new currency, so I don’t think it would help us win the referendum either because it wouldn’t demonstrate the kind of responsible management of monetary policy, the responsible management of a new currency, of state finances etcetera.”
