Brexit rural fear
Veteran Labour MEP reckons an independent Scotland would be fast tracked back into Europe
BREXIT has created uncertainty – and no one knows how it will end.
This dreadful Tory Government are being driven by right-wing little Englanders hellbent on their dream of a low-tax, low-regulation UK.
They aim to create a country where compassion and fairness have no place, where only personal wealth is worthy of respect.
If they get their way, damage will be caused in every corner of these islands.
A European Union official has now warned rural communities, in particular, could suffer badly post-Brexit.
Once key EU schemes end, much-needed funding is likely to dry up. The knock-on effect could be the depopulation of areas like our precious Highlands.
Farmers have been told current funding levels will be guaranteed until 2022. But what happens next for rural Scotland? The Clearances MkII?
SCOTLAND would be welcomed into the EU if it backed independence, a veteran Labour MEP has claimed.
David Martin risked undermining his already splintered party by rejecting some of the key arguments Labour used against independence during the 2014 indyref.
Martin said Scotland would not have to join a “queue” of other countries because of its track record and history inside the EU.
And he claimed Scotland wouldn’t have to adopt the euro – even though it is a requirement to sign up.
Martin, who voted No in 2014, said opposition in Europe to Scotland leaving the UK has turned to sympathy since Brexit.
He said: “They know that Scotland voted to Remain and I think they would be very sympathetic if Scotland came back and said ‘Scotland became independent and it wants to join the EU’. It would be welcome.
“The second part of that though is you would get a bespoke deal on the euro because other countries have it and it wouldn’t be a problem that you didn’t sign up to the euro.”
Martin added that we “would have to … go through the process of the negotiation and fulfil all the conditions.
“Fair wind … you are talking a minimum of two years but it would probably realistically be three.”
A Labour spokesman said: “These are hypothetical statements which do not reflect Scottish Labour policy in any way, shape, or form.”