How Sound is Salmond’s Scottish Pound?

One of the more tiresome aspects of the SNP’s vision for the future of Scotland is its fondness for breezily sweeping away awkward questions as though important elements of Scotland’s prospects as an independent nation were nit-picking details that need not delay anyone from setting out on the road to Independence. It sometimes seems as though weather warnings do not exist or, if it is conceded they do, they should be seen as what they are: biased forecasts designed to prevent Scots from reaching their bright future. There are, you see, few clouds and fewer storms to trouble our bonny and blithe travellers.

But some of these warnings are important and reasonable. One of them, to which the SNP has yet to offer an answer that is politically and economically convincing, is the currency question. Here, for instance, was Stephen Noon (an important member of the SNP’s policy team) writing about the currency question earlier this month:

Scotland already has a currency – its called the pound, aka sterling, aka £.