If Scotland Goes

‘No’ to a currency union

If Scotland votes to break away from the UK this September, many issues will have to be thrashed out between London and Edinburgh. None will be as important as the currency that the newly independent Scotland adopts. On this, Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, has never been terribly consistent. In the 1990s, he and the Scottish National party embraced the idea of an independent Scotland joining the euro. More recently, he has declared that Scotland would keep the pound and join a currency union with the rest of the UK, retaining a shared central bank. Even now, Mr Salmond’s prospectus for a Scottish state preserves a little legroom, noting that “it would be open to the people of Scotland to choose different arrangements ...