Assumption that Scotland will stay in the EU just not feasible
ALEX Orr (Letters, July 12) seems to assume that there is a possibility of Scotland remaining in the EU after its parent state, the UK, has left. He claims that in this way we will not only be “sheltered from the worst impacts of Brexit” but also start to take advantage of the economic benefits of still being part of the EU.
He is careful to qualify this rosy future scenario with the provisional “if the UK and EU then agree that Scotland can stay”. Otherwise, he tells us, independence is the only option. Clearly he assumes that a second referendum on Scottish independence conducted, according to his timetable, before mid-2017, will produce a Yes vote – by no means a certainty.
Unless the EU, instigator of governance through participatory democracy, has a further but unrelated plan for the weakening of national parliamentary government, there is no evidence that it intends regional representation to replace that of the current nation states.
The argument that Scotland, an EU Region, having declared itself independent of the UK, would automatically inherit the UK’s role in treaty agreements (including the all-important EEC treaty of 1972 conferring what is now EU membership on the UK) is based on an interpretation of the Vienna Convention on State Succession in Respect of Treaties (1978) that is by no means unanimously accepted by international legal authorities and was never ratified by any of the EU’s most powerful member states.
Moreover, the EU’s recognition of Scotland as a “successor state” to the UK depends not on a legal but on a political decision regarding whether such an unforeseen arrangement would contribute to or detract from European integration.
It may be that a special case for expedited Scottish membership, if not actual successor status based on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, can now be urged but there are still regions such as Catalonia, Bavaria, Flanders, Corsica and Salzburg awaiting a decision on Scotland’s future with keen interest.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, regardless of kind words and kisses from the EU’s de facto leader, Angela Merkel, and the Scottish-German MEP, David McAllister, appears to have failed in her lobbying campaign and continues the retreat from her earlier assertions that Scotland has always been a member of the EU.
Whatever the outcome of Brussels deliberations, the verdict and its interpretation are likely to take a considerable time and voters in a second Scottish independence referendum would need to be assured of the country’s vital position with regard to EU membership. Mr Orr’s recommendation of June next year as a deadline for this vote seems not to be feasible. Mary Rolls (Mrs), 1 Carlesgill Cottages, Westerkirk, Langholm, Dumfriesshire. ON READING the Pinstripe column (“Independence would not aid economic prosperity”, Herald Business, July 11), I thought: “Project Fear No 3 – alive and kicking.”
On a minor point, the very high Leave vote in Moray may just have something to do with the large number of Service personnel and their families in that area. (This seat was held by the SNP in May.) Secondly, Pinstripe says the SNP has a history of not accepting it has arrived on the wrong side of a referendum; once, in 2014, does not constitute a “history”. However, after that result the SNP grew dramatically and in the Westminster General Election in 2015 won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats.
I joined the SNP in 1966 before oil was a factor, because I believed that we could run Scotland a lot better from up here than from down there. I have seen no reason to change that view. The untold billions from oil, pooh-poohed by successive Westminster Governments has been squandered, there is no money left, at present; Pinstripe has also omitted to mention that all the oil estimates were wrong. However there is still more oil and gas left in the North Sea than has been taken out of it, and a perceptive Pinstripe may not have noticed that the Middle East is in flames – see the Chilcot Report for the culpability of London government.
Further points, I believe North Ireland and Ireland happily trade with one another, both in the EU of course; I imagine England and Wales will not be allowed to starve by a friendly Scotland. We will run Scotland differently, and better, not all that difficult really, when we look at the mess we inherit. Jim Lynch, 42 Corstorphine Hill Crescent, Edinburgh. CONGRATULATIONS to the new PM of the residual UK. If “Brexit means Brexit” (T May, July 11) then “Scotstay means Scotstay” (N Sturgeon, tomorrow). Ms Sturgeon has a mandate from voters. Norrie Forrest, 14 Excise Street, Kincardine. THE referendum identified that the immigration from eastern Europe was unpopular to the outers. It is therefore strange that we are increasing our national debt to send troops to defend the Baltic States. Surely it would be better for Russia to reclaim her former eastern states. The re-emergence of the iron curtain would cease any further immigration. Robert Ferguson Gibson, 2 Southview Drive, Blanefield, Stirlingshire.