Agree there is a difference. On the same page here. Regulatory alignment is not an area I have analysed.

We couldn't cope with those Ukranian winters.

When we look at the impact of aligning with EU inflation and interest rates, which has contributed to high unemployment and the need to increase EU imports plus inability to devalue against the Euro the argument against early convergence is pretty strong.

If you get a chance to read the paper you will see the challenge.

You can do all of that a decade after independence. If it is the right thing to do. Institutional path dependency should be avoided until we sort out the huge mess we will inherit. Obviously, there are many things that can be done.

We are arguing for a clean slate. Designing institutions for Scots. And then after a period of independence deciding what changes we need to make to join EU and of course then deciding if that process is worth it. No one can make those decisions now or during the first decade as an indy nation.

That's great to hear Gill. I have always tried to take an evidence based, not an idealogical, approach to EU. I would like it to work out, but we need the evidence. It can't just be based on 'well Brexit was a bad idea'.

Who really is in charge if the above is true? The belief that the UK government is held to ransom by bond vigilantes is nonsense. The sooner we realise the reality, the sooner we can challenge the belief that governments can't achieve progressive aims. 6/6

If primary dealers can only purchase gilts with money previously created by the government, and if the government doesn't need to sell bonds to spend it, then it effectively reverses what most people assume: hence, the widespread belief is that bond markets are in control. 5/6

Second, we do not need to borrow private individuals' savings (in fact, it is operationally impossible to do that) to enable the government to spend. 4/6

First, we need government deficits if we want people to be able to save (generally agreed that is a good idea), as it is only the government that creates new net financial wealth. The 'borrowing' comes after the spending! 3/6

The government can offer an exchange of central bank reserves held by primary dealers for newly issued government gilts because it has spent more money than it has collected in taxes (resulting in a deficit). This impacts our economic discussions in two important ways. 2/6