Making A Meal Out Of A Dogs Dinner

Having already suggested that the present timing and nature of the two proposed referenda on Scotland and the EU promise us not just a confused constitutional situation but a potentially dangerous financial and economic shambles, the article below from LSE was of particular interest.

It tries to explain in a balanced way how incoherent the positions are both north and south of the border.

Perhaps it is only to be expected when you get a former RBS economist dealing with the former Director of Corporate Affairs for Carlton Communications.

Below the link is the conclusion to the longer article.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/30465

Quote:

Cameron’s policy on the EU is just as incoherent as the SNP’s policy on continuing EU membership on current terms. Cameron assumes he will win the next election, just as Alex Salmond assumes that Scotland will automatically be an EU member state.

Cameron claims that he can walk into the room and negotiate a new deal. Salmond claims that he can secure Scotland’s place in Europe on current terms: i.e. by inheriting the UK’s opt outs on the euro currency and the Schengen free travel area, which is illusory.

Moreover, a referendum (if one is to be had) needs to set out two clear choices beforehand. The in/out referendum on the EU or the Yes/No referendums on Scottish independence do not offer sufficient alternatives.

What will come after EU membership? A free trade (all pay and no say) agreement with the EU like Norway? The Commonwealth? The USA? NAFTA? The global market? Splendid isolation?

Likewise, Salmond promises continuity when any EU lawyer, politician, and bureaucrat will tell him that there is no automatic right to membership of the European Union. So, what if membership is not automatic?

Will Scotland stay outside the EU? Have its application fast-tracked? Join the queue of applicant states?

He also promises currency continuity within a skeletonised British union, when there are an array of economists and Treasury politicians past and present saying it either will not work, or will render the gaining of political independence pointless.

So what will happen then? Freelance use of the pound? Enforced joining of the euro? Invention of a Scottish currency?

The à la carte menus offered by both are, in reality, a dog’s dinner.

Unquote.

Try Youtube “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window” by Patti Page, it makes more sense than the songs our politicians are trying to sing.