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The Scottish Government
is actively pushing for Scotland to leave the U.K. and take its place as
an independent nation in the wider world. But yet the SNP blatantly
presents its geographic naďvté to the wider world by frequently treating
‘Europe’ and the ‘European Union’ as synonyms. For example, here is an
excerpt from
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mckelvie/140120.htm
which appears in these pages:
The European Question
To any normal person living outside of the intricate academic theses
over Scotland’s EU membership, the whole issue is impenetrable I know.
Most people I speak to about it are inclined to say either that they
don’t understand it or that they just aren’t interested.
I
can appreciate why. Europe’s affection for acronyms like CAP, CFP,
BEREC, ENOSA, EBA, EUSA and the like is off-putting in itself. You can
get an idea here:
http://tinyurl.com/octxfn5
But Europe is our largest trading partner, it is a bloc of more than 510
million people, it has the power and the legal systems to keep our
rights protected, to give us free trade, freedom to live and work or be
educated in any of the member countries, to have the same rights as the
citizens of those countries have if we elect to reside there or even
holiday there. It provides the legislation that overrules that of the
individual countries on everything from the right never to be tortured
to the commonality of road signs.
The affection for acronyms cited by Ms McKelvie is not
universal in Europe and might be cringeworthy in non-EU European nations
such as Norway, Switzerland, and/or Iceland. And note that the European
Union and not Europe …” provides the legislation that overrules
that of the individual countries …” Does Ms McKelvie not realise that
she has just admitted that “independent Scotland” will not be completely
independent as a member of the EU? It will merely have exchanged
Scotland’s overlords in Westminster for overlords in Brussels.
Ms. McKelvie also tells us that “Europe is our largest
trading partner, it is a bloc of more than 510 million people.” That
sounds impressive except for the fact that the Council of Europe has 47
member countries with a combined population of 820 million. See
http://www.coe.int/aboutCOe/index.asp.
Ms McKelvie is the Convenor of the
European and External Relations Committee
of the Scottish Parliament. It would be useful for her to understand all
of her bailiwick, not just the European Union. |
