Bet your dollar?

Bill Chisholm’s suggestion (Letters, 11 May) that Scotland should “adopt” the US dollar as its currency, is not viable. Yes, it could pump money into our traditional industries, and American tourists and industries would have straight use of the dollar. Although not mentioned by Mr Chisholm, it would also bypass the whole European Union/
eurozone question.

He mentions two British sovereign territories “using” the dollar. In the British Virgin Islands, however, the dollar is ubiquitous for money laundering the world’s Ponzi schemes.

In the British Indian Ocean Territory, the dollar is the currency of utility. When the United States wanted Diego Garcia as a strategic island base for its military, the entire population of 2,000 islanders was removed and banned from returning.

Under Mr Chisholm’s suggestion, Faslane would have US nuclear submarines instead of British ones, and Scotland would have to subsidise US industries here with borrowed dollars. The US is expanding its $17 trillion national debt at the rate of $85 billion a month. Sayonara Scotland.

His final suggestion of Scotland tapping into the USAID budget is ludicrous and naïve. The AID part stands for “Agency for International Development”, and its avowed purpose is to support US foreign policy goals throughout the world.

Ronald Rankin

Dalkeith, Midlothian