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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.
* * * * *
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. |
