One of Scotland’s most respected business figures has said that Alex Salmond must come clean with a Plan B on currency.
Jack Perry is the former Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, the agency responsible for supporting Scotland’s firms to compete at home and around the world.
He knows what he is talking about when it comes to creating jobs for Scotland. That’s why his intervention in the referendum debate is so significant.
Jack Perry has said that if Alex Salmond follows through on his hints, nods and winks to use the pound without a formal currency union in a separate Scotland, there would have to be big spending cuts on vital public services like our NHS and schools.
This is over and above the £6 billion in either tax rises or spending cuts that the impartial experts Institute for Fiscal Studies have said a separate Scotland would face in the years after separation, in addition to those taking place today.
That is half of our entire NHS budget. We can’t afford to put that at risk.
The currency we use is fundamental to everything that we do as a country.
How can we have any confidence about the future if we don’t know what money we would get our wages, pensions and benefits in?
The future of our schools and hospitals would be at risk if we don’t know what currency we would use to pay for them in an independent Scotland.
And how can families plan for the future when we don’t know what currency we would use to pay for energy and shopping bills if we leave the UK?
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