One\nof the side effects of the lunacy which is Brexit, is that it has\nhighlighted just how differently Scotland and England view Europe and\neverything about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve\nalways had the idea, perhaps because of the Auld Alliance etc, that\nwe take a much more positive approach and are more amenable to Europe\nand Europeans than our Southern cousins. Perhaps because England has\ntended to view Europe as a source of threat rather than support.\nAllied to the fact that, especially after the last war, England\ntended to think that it had no need of foreigners far less to\naccommodate their needs and develop them as partners. Thus, when the\nTreaty of Rome and the European Coal and Steel treaties were being\ndrafted in the 50s and the new organisation was growing into the\nCommon Market, there were precious few in Westminster who could look\nbeyond that narrow parochialism. Even fewer still who understood that\nthis was in fact the precise moment when real leadership would have\nyielded huge dividends, economically, politically and socially.\nInstead England retreated into an almost reclusive stance and\nbelieved that it and its Empire had no need of anyone else or their\nhelp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nact of self-harm would have its sequence of humiliations as PM after\nPM were forced to go cap in hand to the new organisation seeking\nadmission. The\nUnited Kingdom made its first application to join the European Union\nin 1961. It was soon apparent that refusing to join meant a real\ndanger of political isolation and loss of influence within Western\nEurope. The Commonwealth countries, on whom the empirical myth\ndepended were rushing to do deals with the new bloc, and it had\nAmerican support. The first application was vetoed by\nthe French Government in 1963 with a second application vetoed by the\nFrench again in 1967. It was only in 1969 that the green light\nwas given to negotiations for British membership. The sell-out of\nfishing communities was just one part of the bitter harvest we reaped\nbecause of the stiff upper lip stupidity a decade earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now\nwe see the same narrow parochialism driving the Brexit bus and\nthreatening to take us all over the cliff with them. It is blindingly\nobvious that although England has lost an Empire it has yet to try\nand find a new role in the world. England is without doubt a great\ncountry. With a long and proud history leadership in military,\neconomic and cultural achievements but right now it\u2019s floundering,\nlacking anyone who is capable of even starting that conversation far\nless signposting the road ahead and leading people along it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just\nfor one moment spare a thought for our families and friends in\nEngland as they face up to the prospect that on December 12, they\nmust entrust their future to one of the three charlatans. Talk about\nTweedledee, Tweedledum and Tweedledummer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For\nScotland\u2019s part we are a European Nation! One of the most potent\narguments of 2014 was that voting NO was the only way to guarantee<\/strong>\nthat Scotland would remain part of the EU. Note that word GUARANTEE.\nHad Cameron, Brown, Clegg, Davidson, Rennie and Swinson etc been Used\nCar Salesmen they would have been in front of the local Trading\nStandards Dept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n History,\nwe are told, repeats itself,\nfirst as\ntragedy, then as farce. That sounds to me like a good description of\nEngland\u2019s long and troubled relationship with her neighbours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s\nour misfortune to be tied to those errors and the only way out for\nScotland is the door marked \u201cINDEPENDENCE\u201d. It\u2019s our good\nfortune that more and more of our friends, families and colleagues\nare being persuaded of that case. The UK is broken beyond redemption\nand it\u2019s time to \u201cStop the world, Scotland wants to get on\u201d as\nWinnie said 52 years ago this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the side effects of the lunacy which is Brexit, is that it has highlighted just how differently Scotland and England view Europe and everything about it. We\u2019ve always had the idea, perhaps because of the Auld Alliance etc, that we take a much more positive approach and are more amenable to Europe and Europeans than our Southern cousins. Perhaps because England has tended to view Europe as a source of threat rather than support. Allied to the fact that, especially after the last war, England tended to think that it had no need of foreigners far less to accommodate their needs and developRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}