Fragile union
We must, for sanity’s sake, ignore the impossible position Mr Orr finds himself in. He is committed to dividing Britain against popular will while awestruck by an EU that has long championed Cypriot unity despite vast socioeconomic differences between that island’s communities.
The perils of being in a currency union you have little say in governing has parallels with Ireland’s recent past: the evidence is clear that these unions end in disaster for the smaller country.
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Hide AdMr Orr then goes on to say the Russians have much to gain as they have so much money invested in Cyprus. It is now clear the very opposite is true, with large-scale capital flight following unprecedented write-downs of deposits.
The irony of acknowledging foreign powers, seeking to bailout Cyprus, having their eyes on offshore gas reserves is wasted on Euronationalists, who would support mortgaging off our North Sea for little more than rolling over dead loans.
It is in the concept of Russia establishing bases in Cyprus that Mr Orr really misfires. Scotland already has two (UK) bases in Cyprus, guaranteed by treaties that also forbid countries other than Turkey and Greece being involved in Cyprus’s affairs.
The clear beneficiary is unclear at the moment. Russians have lost huge sums through no fault of their own: any attempt at criminalising depositors based on nothing more than their nationality has a very dirty word attached to it and for good reason. Cyprus has lost its main industry; imagine if someone took a chainsaw to our productive fossil fuel industry and… oh never mind that one!
The EU has created incredible instability as each member’s bailout so far has been completely different. This makes any risk assessment for investors impossible. Having learned the folly of undemocratic currency unions and banking policy made without any sense of numeracy or integrity, let’s not to rush to join this arc of austerity by abandoning the UK.
Jon Stanley
Edinburgh