The Scottish independence referendum is much in the news as we come up to the vote and one of the main weaknesses of the nationalists is their insistence that they will keep the pound, which the unionists decry as unworkable. Indeed, it was on this very point that Alastair Darling landed his most telling blow on Alex Salmond in the recent televised debate.
Yet no one ever seems to mention the experience of Ireland , where the newly independent state used sterling for seven years and then pegged its currency to the pound for a further fifty. You would have thought that the nationalists would be holding this up as an example of what could be achieved, and putting the unionists on the defensive, challenging them to say exactly why it couldn't be implemented for Scotland, but they don't.
It's just another mystery, to go alongside why the Tories, who would be almost guaranteed a majority in Parliament if Scotland was independent, are so against independence.
Debate Magazine
