The view from Thames Ditton

As part of their annual reporting, major companies are required to assess potential changes to the market in which they operate. They should highlight potentially significant risks, and provide an indication of the steps they are taking to mitigate these risks.

Because this is the season for annual reports, many companies have recently published such risk assessments. These prompted endless cries from the No campaign that there is too much risk and uncertainty in the world. According to No, Scotland should stick its head back under a benevolent Westminster blanket and snooze its way through the future. As if that were remotely possible.

Over the past few days, a new type of business risk assessment caught the attention. This was an email sent by Bill Munro, a Non-Executive Director of local travel company, Barrhead Travel. Munro chose to send his email, said to outline his views on independence, not just to a few friends and family, or even to his rugby team pals. No, Mr Munro used Barrhead Travel’s internal email system to broadcast his ‘views’ to all 800 of the company’s employees.

We are asked to overlook the fact that if an ordinary member of staff had done that they would have been hauled in and at best told not to do it again or, at worst, fired. We will even overlook the fact that the email undoubtedly provoked staff into spending company time arguing the rights and wrongs of what they had just received.

What is more difficult to overlook is that the views expressed in the email weren’t even Munro’s, they were simply lifted from a publication by a Mr Bob Lyddon, referred to as a “banking expert”. Mr Lyddon has close connections to the right wing, anti-EU, Bruges Group. Mr Munro pretends his memo is the view from Barrhead, whereas it is really the view from Thames Ditton. Yet, the interests served by Mr Lyddon could not be further from the interests of Barrhead Travel and its employees.

In his blog ‘Flight of fancy’, Stephen Noon exposes a catalogue of errors in Mr Munro’s email:

He says his business wouldn’t be able to trade outside an independent Scotland for 3 years: this has absolutely no basis in reality – trading takes place between independent countries every day of the year, Scotland would be no different. Ireland (in the EU) and Norway (outside the EU) all trade with England, so too would Scotland.

He says Scotland would be ‘outwith the EU’ but as Charlie Jeffery, Professor at Edinburgh University says “the conclusion of almost all independent expert analysis is that Scottish EU membership would be uninterrupted”.

He says Scotland would have to have its own currency, but Scotland already has a currency, the £ sterling and this would continue after a Yes. As a UK Government minister told the Guardian last week, "of course there would be a currency union". As the government minister continued, "saying no to a currency union is obviously a vital part of the no campaign. But everything would change in the negotiations if there were a yes vote"

He says Scotland has ‘joint and several liability” for the UK’s national debt, however, this has been explicitly denied by the UK government which announced to the markets earlier this year that it would retain legal responsibility for all UK debt. As the Scottish Government set out in its White Paper, Scotland would meet its fair share on the basis that assets and liabilities go together – a cost that is already factored in to Scotland’s national accounts estimates.

He says Scotland would immediately have to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) on the path to joining the Euro, but EU law makes it 100% explicit that joining ERM is a totally voluntary decision. His claim is contrary to the legal position set out in the treaties and secondary legislation.

He says the ERM requirement would result in spending cuts in Scotland, but as the EU law position already stated makes clear, this claim has no basis in fact.

The email sent to all Barrhead Travel staff can be see here:

Whether he likes it or not, Mr Munro’s memo to Barrhead staff carried the force of an official statement. What can staff now make of the company’s future when they see its decision-making is in the hands of directors with such little understanding of the world around them, or such little regard for the truth?

Mr Munro was able to (ab)use the email system of Barrhead Travel to broadcast his torrent of errors to 800 staff, who had no right of reply. But, on 18 September, that inequality disappears. For the first time in 300 years, all of our voices will be heard, as we democratically determine Scotland’s future. Between now and then Yes East Kilbride will provide opportunities for residents to hear the case for a Yes vote, and to have their say on the issues that are important to them.

Let Mr Munro keep his face firmly set on the view from Thames Ditton while we set about forging the view from East Kilbride. Come and join us, starting with this event on 11 April: