The SNP’s vision of independence is cloudy at best, and that’s not enough
First the SNP said automatic EU entry would be a certainty, then it was downgraded to a ‘negotiation’. Now Nicola Sturgeon is trying to pretend the Scottish Government has never taken EU admission for granted, but its behaviour over the past 12 months indicates the reverse.
With the caveat that the above statement is from the Scottish Conservative leader, this shows precisely my issue around the referendum. The people of Scotland are being asked to vote on a mystery bag of conditions, power, and the country’s place on the world stage. All I have to go on is the word of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, and their word has been show to be not as trustworthy as would need it to be on the thousands of issues that would crop up in an independent Scotland.
If you are so confused and if you genuinely want clarification, why do you resort to the utterances of a British nationalist as if that was the only voice you can hear?
I think, the SNP is right–it’s facing very skewed messaging from certain EU member states. Spain, Romania, Poland, Latvia, Finland and France each have regions where succession is discussed if not wholly advocated. It’s the reason several of these have not recognized Kosovo.
In reality, a peaceful divorce between Scotland and the UK would be closer to the velvet divorce between the Czechs and Slovaks, assuming a reasonable negotiation occurs. Within a few years both countries followed very similar trajectories into the OECD and EU. It could be argued it’s also the reverse of Germany’s story, where a large non-EU entity was integrated into an existing EU member state.
If the UK and Scottish government can negotiate through the big issues, it behooves the Brits to support Scotland’s fast-track EU membership. And the EU would be stoopid to make it anything less than a smooth transition.
I expect an independent Scotland would remain within a currency union regardless.
The quote simply backs up what I am seeing, the slow degradation of what the SNP proclaim on a subject (eg membership of the European Union) back to something more realistic. And if that’s the case in one issue, is it systemic?
But is this “slow degradation” the reality? Or is it merely the “truth” according to the mainstream media? I’m pretty familiar with SNP policy. And I have seen no change in the party’s position on Scotland’s post-independence EU status. What I have seen is a stream of newspaper articles by the likes of Magnus Gardham referring to “U-turns”. I guess I’m just not gullible enough to be to be taken in by such drivel.
I don’t want the Party’s position on post-independence EU status, I want to know what will actually happen. Any new state in the EU must sign up to Schengen and Euro for example, and the SNP position is that this will be ‘negotiated’ after we’ve already voted on the referendum.
If you’re looking for absolute certainty then politics is obviously not your subject. And if you are not interested in the SNP’s position then why is that all you refer to?
Some people are more susceptible to the fear-mongering of British nationalists than others. Those of us who look at the situation rationally and figure things out for ourselves aren’t affected by it at all.