No camp: What happens to UK credit rating if it’s Yes?

According to Professor Adam Tomkins, there are very sound reasons for not having a currency union which he invites readers to explore further.

And there were specific questions which could only be answered by either the Yes or No camps.

In this article, Professor Adam Tomkins tackles the second question levelled at the No campaign.

Professor Adam Tomkins is a British legal scholar and John Millar Professor of Public Law at the School of Law of the University of Glasgow.

Adam was educated at the University of East Anglia and the London School of Economics. He taught at the School of Law of King’s College London between 1991 and 2000 and became a fellow at St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 2000, before being elected to the John Millar Chair of Law at Glasgow in 2003.

His research interests lie in constitutional theory and history, British, EU and comparative constitutional law, and republicanism.

Adam has published seven books in the areas of constitutional, administrative and European Union law, including Public Law (2003) and British Government and the Constitution (2007, with Colin Turpin), which are among the most widely used by law students in the UK.

Question: The Better Together camp has, implicitly, ruled out a currency union which the Scottish Government descibes as bluff and bluster. If it is not bluff and bluster, could you explain what will happen to the UK’s credit rating when between £1 and £4 trillion of oil revenue is removed from its GDP, in the event of a Yes vote?

Adam said: “I do not know what will happen to the UK’s credit rating in the event of Scottish independence.

“There are very sound reasons why the UK Government, with the support of the Labour party, has ruled out the prospect of a formal currency union between the UK and an independent Scotland.

“I have explored those reasons fully here: http://notesfromnorthbritain.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/the-snps-currency-

nightmare/ if undecided readers would like to explore the issue further.”

Keep checking our website today for further answers from Professor Adam Tomkins, and Robin McAlpine from the Yes campaign, throughout the day.