eurealist.co.uk

The Scotsman seems to be conducting a series of article on Scottish independence, today it looks at the Border Issue. Pensions and Benefits, Financial Services and Tax.

On the border issue, I cannot see that there would need be a border between Scotland and the England, for as long as the residual part of the UK remained within the EU. Without Scotland it is very likely that the labour party would be sidelined in UK politics leaving the field open to the Conservatives, at present those in power in the Conservative camp are pro-EU this is not hopefully going to always be the case, and if the Conservative Eurealists gained power who is to say that our membership of the EU would continue.

The German government is starting as it means to go on.

EU Ministers set out yesterday a timetable for reviving the Constitution, with the hope of concluding negotiations on a new document by late 2008.

In a move to isolate countries which have not ratified, the18 countries that have already ratified will attend a meeting in Madrid on 26 January.

A separate meeting amongst countries that have not yet ratified the Treaty will be held a month later on 27 February.

These meetings will enable Germany (which assumes the presidency 1 January) to formulate a report on the future evolution of the EU Constitution.

Angela Merkel made it clear yesterday that she will use the German Presidency to get the European Constitution talks back on track. she said “I would consider it an historical failure if we do not succeed in working out the substance of the constitutional treaty by the time the next European elections take place,” she said the German government would work “intensively” during the six-month Presidency “so that such a treaty, based on our common values, can go into force.”

EUobserver reports that Jose Barroso is confident that the Constitution will be revived saying, ”I believe we are going to make real progress during the next presidency”.

The European Voice reports Margot Wallström, European commissioner for communication as saying

“You cannot disregard citizens. It is important to make sure the renegotiation is not only about horse-trading behind closed doors,” “I know the German presidency says that there should not be too many people involved in the negotiation, but we could invite the European Parliament, national parliaments, the civil society, to show that we welcome contributions on the future of Europe.”

She added that getting input from citizens, national parliaments and the European Parliament would be crucial not only for showing that Europe listened to its people, but also for “anchoring” any new treaty text in the member states and helping it win their approval.

The commissioner urged “a co-ordinated effort, a public consultation on any new text simultaneously in all member states”.

“I am not talking only about referenda: if referenda are not possible, according to national traditions, different ways of consultation can be chosen: in some member states it could go through the national parliament, in others there could be consultation through electronic methods, and so on; the important thing is to consult the people.”

While member states could choose the method, “they should do it the same day, in a co-ordinated way, to give the impression the whole of Europe is engaged in this”.

When will these people get it into their heads that this is not an EU wide initiative, each Nation State Member must decide on its own if it wishes to transfer these powers to the EU, all they are trying to do is to use the numbers of people in some countries like for instance Germany, to suggest that the majority of the people want this, but they will not actually be asking the German people to vote in a referendum. So they will not be country the Germans who do not want it or even proving a majority of them do.

Scottish National MP Angus MacNeil writing in the Telegraph says;

“This week Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems have taken great delight in telling the Scots that they are subsidised by over £11 billion”

Although he argues that this figure is disputed by the independence movement in Scotland, he does not offer any evidence to support that contention,(I do know that it exists) but imidiatly swerves off on a tangent about this week’s report that independent Ireland will this year achieve a budget surplus of £3.97 billion while the London Chancellor has a £34.2 billion deficit. And asks if Ireland would flourish in such a dramatic way if still governed from London?

I always admire how the left in particular can put so many half-truths in such a short sentence; the independent Ireland of which he so lovingly speaks has been the recipient of massive EU handouts since it joined the Community, even this week a new batch of subsidies for Ireland have been announced, it is those handouts which have enable the Irish to prosper, but that prosperity has partially been bought with money donated by the British people as our government has been one of the major financial sponsors of EU funds, and of course the London Chancellor who apparently has made such a hash of the job, is in fact Scottish and is fully supported by the many other Scots in the British Cabinet. So McNeil is complaining about his own countrymen but because he places them in London he is suggesting they are not Scottish. Propaganda or what!

But the point of the McNeil letter is to question why as “Eleven billion would go a long way in England towards introducing free care for the elderly and removing student tuition fees. While telling the Scots they are being subsidised, Labour, particularly, but also the Tories and the Lib Dems are shy of telling the English they are being robbed.”

He is of course quite right that the information is not disseminated fully south of the border, but he is not putting his question in the context of next years the elections to the Scottish Parliament, which if the SNP are the winners will lead to a referendum in Scotland for the break up of the UK, in this debate the rest of us have no voice, and the question only becomes pertinent within the independence or the British constitutional debate.

From my personal perspective as a British taxpayer, the suggestion that Scotland might take more out of the joint purse than the Scottish people put in, has no more relevance than the proposition might also be true of Cornwall, Devon, Powys or Anglesey (begging their pardon) we are all British we are all one peoples and we all share in the national purse.

If it is a reality that Scotland needs more support that is simply a fact of life, might well be a fact of past government decisions, or that it has large rural areas which are sparsely populated, with only about one fourth of the land under cultivation, that fact that until very recently the extension of feudalism and the land enclosures of the 19th centaury has meant that the ownership of most land in Scotland was concentrated in relatively few hands, and with the decline of heavy industry and of the coal industry also contributing to the present (disputed) situation. But none of this means Scotland is a basket case that would be a continual drain on the British economy or that it could not survive independence.

To me the whole idea that England is being robbed by the Scots is nothing more than nationalistic manoeuvring it suits their purpose at this time to create antipathy between the peoples of the nation.

The real cost to Britain is membership of the EU and those costs dwarf any real or imagined Scottish costs. The government have not been prepared to do a cost benefit analysis, but there have been several other independent analysis. The Bruges Group estimates including British contributions, Payment to EU institutions, CAP, CFP, and EU regulation comes to 52.4 billion and that figure is set to grow as our contribution rise in the next few years. And I do not belive this figure includes the cost to the British exchequer of the recent ECJ decisions on Tax.

If eleven billion would go a long way in England towards introducing free care for the elderly and removing student tuition fees. Just imagine what 50 or even 30 Billion each and every year would buy. In the mean time the good folk of Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Greece Spain and the new eastern entrants are all in some way being supported by the British taxpayer.

Perhaps Mr McNeil, a better question would be; Labour, Tories Lib Dems and the SNP are shy of telling the British they are being robbed. I wonder why.