by Rab Bruce’s Spider

So that was the Labour conference, then, with Jeremy Corbyn speaking for ages yet managing not to say very much at all, while his followers did a grand job on social media of showing just how out of touch they are with Scotland in particular and Brexit in general. Some of them genuinely seem to believe Corbyn is anti-Brexit, which perhaps explains his apparent popularity.

But let’s move on because contemplating Labour’s weird brand of politics isn’t good for your mental health. It is the subsequent media discussions which caught my ear this time. Corbyn’s pledge to renationalise Utilities such as Water, Electricity, Gas and Rail have resulted in the usual media commentary of, "How will all this be paid for?". We even had an audience member on BBC Question Time repeating Margaret Thatcher’s tired old mantra that the problem with Socialism is that, sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.

Now, these are tried and trusted arguments and, to be fair, most of us accepted them unquestioningly for a long time because they were difficult to argue against, just as the claims of, "There is no money left" or "You can’t spend what you haven’t got" were generally accepted as true because we can relate to those concepts.

But things have changed in recent years. Access to social media and alternative points of view have helped make many people realise that these arguments are, in fact, deeply flawed and take no account of how a modern economy works. Looking back in history, you can understand how the economies of the Roman Empire or medieval Europe suffered when coin was short or so debased that it was virtually worthless. But that is not how modern economies work, especially if a country has control over its own currency. If you have your own currency, you have a magic money tree. You can never run out of money, so there is never a question of how things will be paid for. The question is, how can you pay for them without pushing the economy into a period of high inflation? To do this, you need to control the money supply and use taxation. As Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK has so often pointed out, it is not, "Tax and Spend", it is "Spend then tax". Taxation means that a Government can exercise an element of control over the amount of money in circulation – and that’s electronic money, not only notes and coins. By creating public money to invest in public improvements such as infrastructure or even nationalising Utilities with a view to halting the seepage of money out of the UK to foreign owners or Hedge Funds which salt the proceeds in offshore Bank accounts, a Government can stimulate an economy to create employment, and thus increase the tax base to offset the original spending.

But the important thing to note is that you can’t run out of money, so you need not worry how things will be paid for. Sadly, our media has not yet cottoned on to this way of thinking and continue to repeat the old arguments to the accompaniment of much sage nodding.

The other hypocrisy in all this is that, while Corbyn is derided for having uncosted plans, an even more rigorous expectation is placed on the Scottish Government. Remember how the Better Together campaign wanted to know every last detail of the finances of an independent Scotland, right down to the cost of a stamp? It will be the same again next time, that’s for certain. In the meantime, nobody questions how the DUP deal will be funded, nobody bats an eyelid over how the unnecessary General Election was paid for, nobody worries about how the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace or the Houses of Parliament will be funded, nobody wonders where we will find the now doubled cost of repairing Big Ben, and even those who complain about how the cost of renewing Trident could be better spent elsewhere ever questions where the money will come from to pay the eye-watering cost of this supremely useless status symbol.

The problem is that the "How will it be paid for?" argument resonates with the public and serves the interests of those who control the Right Wing media. It is unlikely that any presenter on a political discussion programme will ever acknowledge the flaw in the claims. Which means it will be up to us to spread the word. Tell people about alternative economics as propounded by Richard Murphy, Steve Keen and others. A Government needs to be prudent when deciding which projects to fund, and it certainly can’t produce an unlimited supply of money without consequences, but paying for things which will benefit the economy is never a bad idea, and people need to understand that there really is a magic money tree if the money is spent in the right way and in a controlled manner.

Which is why, when Scotland does eventually become a normal country, we will need our own currency. This idea will frighten many people, which is why the SNP dared not take that bold step last time round. Next time, it needs to be portrayed as an essential part of the whole independence project. And if we can explain to people why control over our own currency gives us control over our economy, then we need to be prepared to counter the "How will it be paid for?" question.