Dear All
One of the biggest blunders politically by
Scotland’s ‘jolly fat man’ Alex Salmond has been on the issue of the European
Union.
And yet again, and it’s an old story
whether the SNP are concerned, it all revolves around Law.
The SNP said that Scotland would have
automatic membership of the EU.
That’s a lie!
The SNP said that the Scottish Government
had legal advice on the EU.
That’s a lie!
In fact neither as an opposition nor as an
administration did the SNP ever bother to officially ask.
And who could forget that night in 2012 at
the BBC Big Debate when Ruth Davidson pulled out a letter and blew unpopular
Nicola Sturgeon apart on TV in front of a live studio audience.
That night was a personal disaster, in the
debate, she came last! Everyone else had a decent night including Patrick
Harvie who decided that truth was the order of the day.
Sturgeon’s story telling completely bombed!
If Scotland was independent, it would lose
automatically EU membership, the lie feed to voters that we would just transfer
over during talks is nonsense, utter nonsense; law doesn’t work that way.
A fresh application would have to be made
and all the processes followed.
The UK Government has categorically ruled
out the SNP's proposal to avoid the normal accession process.
All EU members are entitled to have a vote
on whether Scotland can have membership, this cannot be worked around.
So, this has led to the prospect of an
independent Scotland staying in the European Union being described as "a
corpse".
Yup, pretty much sounds right on the money.
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael
trooped into Holyrood to share the bad news to the Nationalists who are
steadily seeing their plans implode as each day passes.
The Scottish Government's plan is now
"riddled with bullets" saysScottish Secretary Alistair Carmichae.
Although Scotland would still be a member
of the UK and EU between the referendum and the increasingly unlikely “independence
day”, EU funding would be put on hold and no new grants would be issued.
This is because Scotland wouldn’t be a
member until the processes were agreed.
The SNP-administration hoped to circumvent
the normal EU accession process, set out in article 49 of the Lisbon Treaty, by
asking Westminster to propose an amendment to the treaty to write Scotland in
as a continuing state, using a procedure set out in article 48.
That isn’t going to happen, although there
is an Edinburgh agreement to run a referendum, that doesn’t extend beyond that,
and with a possible change of government in 2015, if Labour is elected, they
aren’t committed to anything, not even goodwill.
Chancellor George Osborne has already
categorically ruled out sharing the pound in a currency union with an independent
Scotland.
That pretty much sunk the Nationalist case
for garnering votes using the nothing will change strategy.
When asked to follow suit and categorically
rule out using article 48, Mr Carmichael said:
"That has been done. The UK Government
is perfectly clear that the purpose of article 48 is for treaty revisions. The
purpose of article 49 is for accession applications. The difficulty for the
Scottish Government is you require to get agreement ultimately on all 28 member
states, so getting a categoric position from the UK Government is only one 28th
of what they need to do."
Short version, they’re fucked on getting a
free pass.
Conservative MSP Jamie McGrigor called on
Mr Carmichael to "shoot the fox" of article 48 which Carmichael duly
did with both barrels.
Speaking after the committee, Mr Carmichael
said:
"I think that is a fox, the corpse of
which is riddled with bullets. It is barely recognisable as a fox anymore."
Carmichael added:
"The Scottish Government is taking us
down an untested constitutional path with no idea where it will lead. My
concern is that Scotland is going to be treated as a guinea pig, with no idea
about what the experiment will do to us."
One of the gags that the SNP have used to
shore up their house of cards is to say they have ‘experts’ giving them their
opinions.
Who are these ‘experts’?
They are people who have no say in the EU,
therefore their opinion is meaningless in real terms of advancement of the SNP
cause; it isn’t like they found a smoking gun which nails down membership.
Not a bit of it, their opinion is the same
as a man in the street.
Carmichael also rejected the opinion of
European Court judge Sir David Edward (SNP expert), who said Scottish citizens
would not automatically lose their EU citizenship if they voted to leave the
UK.
He cited the case of suspected fraudster
Janko Rottman, who lost his German and Austrian dual citizenship and was
rendered stateless by the EU.
Carmichael said:
"The court heard that a member state
must exercise its powers to withdraw an individual's nationality compatibly with
the principles of EU law. That in itself is a very clear recognition by the
European Court of Justice that the question of citizenship in EU terms of the
sort that Sir David was talking about is quite different and that it can indeed
be withdrawn. And I think it would be quite consistent with that judgment to
say that if Scotland were to vote to leave the UK and tends to leave the EU
then one of the consequences of that would be a loss of EU citizenship”.
No membership not an EU citizen.
On the issue of nationality, it is clear
that anyone born prior to the vote would if independence happened still be a
British Citizen under international law.
To return to Carmicheal’s example on
removal of Janko Rottman, he said:
"That would certainly not be contrary
to any principles of EU law."
The judgement in Rottman V Bavaria
concluded:
"It is not contrary to European Union
law for a member state to withdraw from a citizen of the union the nationality
of that state acquired by naturalisation when that nationality was obtained by
deception, on condition that the decision to withdraw observes the principle of
proportionality."
That is difference obviously to being born
in a member state; it would fall under human rights legislation.
Committee convener Christina McKelvie
expressed doubt that the UK Government would veto the use of article 48 if
Scotland becomes independent.
Well, how can she be confused, Carmichael
has stated the position, Article 48 will not be used and the SNP would be
required to use Article 49 to submit a fresh application.
She said:
"I am absolutely confused today,
because I'm not sure whether the Secretary of State for Scotland is Scotland's
man in Westminster or you are Westminster's man in Scotland. "It seems to have shifted back and
forward all morning."
Grudge, grievance and malcontent, this is
the SNP’s answer to everything.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
2 comments:
Again we get the idea from the snp that if you don't agree with everything they say your a traitor to Scotland.
I want an Independent Scotland but the rubbish we're getting proves we would be far worse off. Lying and spitting bile won't win anyones vote.
the Nats are really up shitcreek without a paddle, their campaign is in ruins now.
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