ONE of Alex Salmond’s former advisers has said the SNP is “writing promises on a bus” for independence and not being honest about Scotland having to adopt the euro.
Alex Bell said that if people voted for independence to rejoin the EU, the party’s current plans would end in “disappointment and crisis”.
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Accusing the party of not being “honest” with the electorate, he said: “The real Brexit effect is that people cannot stand lies.”
He also said the SNP had failed to address “the economic shock of indy” and said “the nation needs to know times will be tough”.
Referring to the bogus claims of the Leave campaign in 2016, he said: “At the moment, the SNP is writing promises on a bus, and we know where that gets you.”
Mr Bell was the senior policy adviser to First Minister Salmond from 2011 to 2013.
He suggested the SNP leadership had played up Brexit to deflect attention from its own internal problems, such as arguments over the currency of an independent Scotland.
The SNP’s Growth Commission argued Scotland could continue to use the pound while it spent a decade cutting its deficit and curbing public spending, then consider a new currency.
However many SNP members are pressing for a new currency to be adopted within the first term of an independent parliament.
The row is set to come to a head in a debate at the SNP conference on April 27.
Writing in the Press and Journal, Mr Bell said the SNP’s European policy was “tatty”.
Its promises to withdraw from the Common Agricultural and Common Fisheries policies were “inventions designed to keep the voters of the north-east sweet on Salmond”.
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He added: “As Brexit shows, setting terms to Brussels and expecting it to willingly agree is foolish. If you are voting for independence because you want to rejoin the EU, you do not want existing SNP policy - it will lead to disappointment and crisis.”
He said that was particularly the case with the euro, which the SNP says it could avoid joining, like Sweden and Denmark.
However Mr Bell noted Sweden and Denmark were EU members before the euro existed, and all new EU members since its creation are obliged to adopt it.
Moreover, the economic terms for adoption “would restrict the spending power of a new Scottish Government. hat is not necessarily a problem - but the nation needs to know times will be tough under these rules.”
He added: “The solution is easy - be honest on all these points. Scotland would have to prepare to join the euro, after a period of time staying with sterling.
“The effect of this, coupled to the jolt to public spending, would be tough.
“However, if Scotland’s only hope is be independent in Europe, then it is a price worth paying. The real Brexit effect is that people cannot stand lies.”
“The way to win Indyref2 and get back to Europe is to be blunt, honest and pragmatic - and for Scotland that starts with learning to tell the truth. After all, what’s so wrong with the euro?”
Pamela Nash, chief executive of the anti-independence outfit Scotland in Union, said: “Alex Bell is right to call for some much-needed honesty from the SNP.
“Just like in 2014, the Nationalists are trying pull the wool over voters’ eyes. All new EU member states are required to formally commit to join the euro, while in the short-term the SNP wants to ditch the pound and put salaries, mortgages and pensions at risk.
“The only way to save our pound is to remain part of the UK, which is just one reason why so many Yes supporters have changed their minds and now want to stay in the UK.”
Respondong to Mr Bell's comments on the euro, an SNP spokesperson said: “This suggestion is simply untrue. Nobody is compelled to join the euro, as the EU itself has made crystal clear, the case in point being Sweden which joined the EU subsequent to single currency rules being drawn up but has decided to keep its own currency.
“By far the biggest risk to Scotland’s economy is from being shackled to a failing UK which draws ever closer to the Brexit cliff edge.”
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