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Scottish Independence and Scotland's Future
Ed Means Column
Scotland in European associations & political ‘journalism’ against Scottish Independence


Scotland in European associations

On 29 November Newsnet Scotland published a very interesting article by George Kerevan, a well-known and well-respected Scottish economist and supporter of Scottish independence. Mr Kerevan’s articles also appear in the Scotsman. He is a member of the Scottish National party, but he has sent mixed signals on whether he is pro or anti independent Scotland’s being a member of the European Union. In this article at http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-opinion/8408-eu-scaremongers-have-own-agenda, Mr Kerevan makes a very good point about what Scots should do regarding EU membership:

The debate regarding independent Scotland’s future relations with the EU is being deliberately obfuscated. There is nothing in the EU treaties that covers a member state dissolving into its constituent parts. Politicians such as Mr Rajoy [Spanish Prime Minister] can express all the personal opinions they want but the only constitutional body that can adjudicate on the [EU] treaties is the European Court of Justice. “My advice to Scots is this: set your own course and don’t be bullied by those with agendas of their own.”

I hope I made my position on independent Scotland’s Membership clear in my 27 November column: Independent Scotland cannot be independent in the EU. It will merely have exchanged its masters in the UK for new masters in Brussels. I also presented some of my logical arguments, but did not try to bully anyone.

Upon independence, Scotland will be eligible to join two organisations which would give it the advantages of the EU without the EU disadvantages of loss of sovereignty, oppressive bureaucracy, and extremely high costs: the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area. A wealth of official information on these institutions is available at http://www.efta.int/eea. Neither of these organisations require members to surrender any sovereignty to the EU as EU members must, and their fees and expenses are far less. Don’t believe this? Then ask Norway and Switzerland.

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Political ‘journalism’ against Scottish independence

I had not intended to address two subjects is point, but I looked once more at Newsnet and found this article published on 30 November: http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-opinion/8411-lifted-from-the-internet-the-poisoning-of-the-independence-debate. The article is too long to repeat here, but here are the first two paragraphs:

Friday saw the continued erosion of political journalism in Scotland. A story exclusively revealed by Newsnet Scotland in October finally made it onto the pages of newspapers and the airwaves of the BBC.

The story was, sadly, unrecognisable by the time it had been manipulated, twisted and contorted. A political agenda had been applied and a caricature - replete with attacks on Alex Salmond - presented to readers, viewers and listeners.

I hope you will read the entire article because it illustrates clearly the bias of the Scottish mainstream press and the even more egregious bias of the purportedly neutral BBC Scotland.


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