CBI questions the costs of independence

Melfort Campbell, the CBI's Scottish chairman, said: "The SNP is committed, if they win this year's Scottish General Election, to legislate for a referendum on independence and to hold the referendum during the four-year term of the parliament.

"It is both appropriate and important for Scotland's business community to put these questions to the SNP.

"It is incumbent on the SNP to demonstrate to business that the certain economic benefits of independence clearly outweigh the undoubted costs and risks involved.

"We look forward to evaluating the SNP's answers and, hopefully, to meeting with Mr Salmond and his colleagues in the near future."

However, the SNP accused the CBI leadership of being out of touch with its membership, saying all the organisation's questions had been answered last week, and insisting Mr Salmond had already indicated a willingness to meet the body.

A furious Mr Salmond last night asked why the CBI was publicly issuing a set of questions to which he had given the CBI specific answers several days ago, and accused the organisation of flouting its membership by getting into bed with Labour.

"What does cause me some concern is to read in the press that CBI officials, along with other business people, had dinner with the Chancellor Gordon Brown and other Labour figures for the express purpose of enlisting support in a secret campaign' against the SNP and independence.

"If these reports are misleading, then I will be perfectly happy to accept any clarification you wish to make.

"Individual business people, of course, have a perfect right and entitlement to say and do as they please in any debate. However, I would be disappointed if the CBI, as a representative organisation in Scotland, were proposing to take sides in a party political debate."

The simmering row goes back at least a fortnight when some within the hierarchy of the business organisation warned the SNP of the coming onslaught. The CBI began to let it be known via the media that they would be intervening in the debate, and the SNP saw a leaked early draft of the questions.

That was why Mr Salmond's aides sent in answers ahead of last week's meeting of the council meeting of the Scottish CBI, and why they were incensed yesterday that the CBI posed questions to which they had already received answers. The SNP has spent the past two years relentlessly courting the business community, mainly through the party's enterprise spokesman, Jim Mather.

But the CBI insisted yesterday that while Jack McConnell, Nicol Stephen, and Annabel Goldie had met them, they had not secured a meeting with Alex Salmond, which is why they were "chivvying him up".

Mr Salmond was furious at this suggestion yesterday, saying he had given them dates for meetings. "I know members of the CBI council for Scotland will not want their organisation to be seen as partisan or party political and I know that in some individual companies there is extreme disquiet at what is going on.

"We replied to all their questions last week and we're very happy to meet them, and have supplied them with dates."

An SNP aide went further: "You can see the pattern. The CBI first went to the press two weeks ago to hint at all this, then the CBI has dinner with Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling - now they have issued questions to answers they've already got."

A spokesman for the CBI said that they had been seeking meetings with political leaders since last October in the run-up to May's Holyrood elections.

"We put 11 questions and we don't have 11 answers," said the CBI spokesman, a claim countered by the SNP, which insisted that the draft it responded to had seven questions which were then broken down into 11.

The CBI spokesman admitted that the SNP had "got hold of our earlier questions", indicating that at least some in the hierarchy of the business organisation may have been uneasy about the current approach.

The 11 questions ... and answers
CBI: How much will it cost Scotland to create its own equivalents of Whitehall departments, armed services, overseas embassies and its own Financial Services Authority?

SNP: Scotland already pays £550m a year for these shared services. Ireland's FSA costs its firms less than half what the UK's FSA costs Scottish firms.

What would the running costs of these be?

Ireland combines its foreign office with trade and overseas development functions that promote the country abroad at a cost of less than Scotland's Foreign Office share.

Given the GERS deficit, how much North Sea revenue would fall to Scotland and how would the country cope with the decline in gas and oil?

International law defines the oil boundary and while production is falling, revenue continues to rise - the key is how to invest for the future, as Norway has done through its oil fund.

How much would it cost to run separate personal and business tax collection systems?

Recent analyses show Scotland already pays over the odds for the administration of its taxes through the UK.

What would Scotland's currency be?

Like Ireland and Australia did, Scotland would choose its time to break with sterling, and the euro will become more attractive.

How would the inflation target be met? What level of interest rates would an SNP government set? What are the estimated costs of "exchange rate risk and currency conversions" between Scotland and England?

Independence would allow freedom to take decisions to make Scotland more competitive.

Have you assessed the number of firms which might quit their Scottish headquarters?

In the modern world, independence is not about borders and barriers. Why would an incorporated business move from a high-skill, lightly regulated, low-corporate-tax environment?

How would Scotland cope with the loss of 11,000 Faslane jobs and 4600 naval yard jobs?

These figures are based on misleading Labour propaganda - parliamentary replies indicate barely one-tenth of that figure. There has already been a loss of 4000 MoD jobs since 1977.