The Scottish "Hand"
Delivered to 129 MSPs at The Scottish Parliament - Tuesday 5th September 2017
Note 1:
Ever play Monopoly? Can we learn lessons from it?
First let's start with a definition: A monopoly is
where one producer controls the supply of a good or service, and
where the entry of new producers is prevented
.
.
That is what a Scottish Central Bank would be …
it would be the ONLY body which was able to issue a Scottish
currency, for use in and for Scotland.
Why start with "Currency" and not go
into detail on other aspects, such as these three elements, a
Constitution,a Monetary Authority, and a Central Bank which are all
essential parts of what an independent Scotland needs.The following
notes will explain.
Note 2:
The object
of MONOPOLY is to become the wealthiest player. Everyone else loses.
It's just a game we play, isn't it? You don't find examples of it in
real life. You don't hear of rents that people can't afford. You
don't hear of anyone being homeless. You don't hear of a lack of
social housing. You don't hear of land only being owned by a few.
Truth is you do, all of them! Is real life all a game, where we just
have to play by somebody else's rules? Who writes the rules for real
life, of poverty, hardship and death? Scotland is a country where we
could change the rules. Scotland needs independence to begin to
establish its own rules, and gaining that independence is not a game!
Note 3 – Part 1:
So you open the box of
Monopoly, you spread out the board, and each player picks a piece to
play with. Question – what happens next? What has to happen next or
nobody can play? I'll be surprised if you don't know the answer, but
maybe you don't realise it has a major significance. What is it about
what happens next that is so significant?
Note 3 – Part 2:
The Monopoly board is
now open, the players have picked their pieces – what happens next,
what must happen next or nobody can play? Yes, and I am not surprised
that you were correct, you appoint a banker, and the banker allocates
each player a sum of money. Releasing money was the only way the game
can start – hold that thought, and read on!
Now apply that thought
to the new Queensferry crossing, just as in monopoly, what must come
first is the release of the money - to pay for the materials and the
workforce. How that happens is why we need 1) a Scottish Monetary
Authority, 2) a Scottish National Bank, 3) our own currency… and
above all else - 4) Scottish independence - so that we can
democratically decide as a country on what our priorities should be,
and what we can afford. Would we decide to pay for the renewal of
Trident or ridding our country of food banks?
Note 3 – Part 3:
Here is a repeat of the
4 items from the last post: 1) a Scottish Monetary Authority, 2) a
Scottish National Bank, 3) our own Scottish currency, 4) Scottish
independence. Imagine last August, you were me, one of a panel at a
YES Rutherglen meeting to discuss currency. Where would you start?
The game of monopoly tells you, Scotland is the board, you know the
players, but you always, repeat always, start with the money. But for
an independent Scotland that money must come in the form of an
independent Scottish currency, for use in and for Scotland. It didn't
exist that night last August. Please read again the question I asked
myself at the YES Rutherglen meeting that night last August. I called
it Stage 1, it is repeated below.
Stage 1: Currency? An
independent Scottish Currency? So do we think about it, discuss it,
do we wait for independence … or would the YES grassroots get
together and just create and adopt it for use in and for Scotland,
not later but now? Since that night, YES Groups and supporters from
all across Scotland have answered my question, they continue to do so
to this day. The answer without any qualification was – YES!
That support from YES
grassroots enabled me on the 1st
of January 2017, to deliver and present to the First Minister of
Scotland an example of an independent Scottish currency, the first in
over 300 years. The positive involvement of YES supporters is proof
positive of the quote I used that night in Rutherglen - “If many
little people, in many little places, do many little things, they can
change the face of Scotland.”
Stage 2: Is now under
preparation. These notes form part of that next stage, as I hope you
will soon see.
As with
earlier deliveries of notes to each individual Member of the
Scottish Parliament, the intention is to provide information to each
MSP and thereby allow for any interaction with their constituents who
are supporting this initiative.
For those
interested in the intended destination of this YES grassroots
initiative, this link dated 31st August 2017 will assist:
http://www.cityam.com/271145/barclays-hsbc-credit-suisse-and-more-banks-join-ubss
It
includes this comment:
"Each USC (Universal Settlement Coin) will be paired one-to-one
with its domestic currency and is 100 per cent collateral-backed with
its respective cash, held at the domestic central bank. Strictly
speaking, USC is not central bank money, but it would have many of
its properties. Most importantly, a USC would be a form of digital
cash that is fully asset-backed by cash at a central bank. So, unlike
payments received in commercial bank money, a payment received in USC
will be free of credit risk."
That
description is a perfect and direct parallel upon which this
initiative has been based from the outset just over 12 months ago.
To view the
progress YES grassroots from across Scotland have made to date please
visit: https://www.facebook.com/thescottishhand/
