Is the SNP prepared for Scotland’s next financial crisis?

As the world continues its fight against Covid-19, the Scottish National Party has been busy plotting Scotland’s exit from the UK. If the party gets its way and wins another referendum, Scots could soon find themselves living under a ‘sterlingisation’ currency system. The implications could be disastrous.

It would be wrong to dismiss talk of another referendum as hypothetical. Powers over the UK’s constitution may sit with Westminster, but recent polling demonstrates a sustained (small) majority for secession. The SNP continues to ride high in the polls, looks set to win convincingly in May’s Holyrood election and has announced it intends to hold another referendum without UK government approval, if necessary. Boris Johnson’s ‘once-in-a-generation’ stance might be tested to breaking point.

So if Scotland does vote out, how might it fare economically? And how will it tackle the thorny issue of its currency regime once formally outside the sterling zone?

A report published by the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission – a group set up by the party to provide a credible economic blueprint for separation – gives some answers.