Scotland in Union were delighted to be joined by Jackie Baillie MSP at our latest public meeting held in Helensburgh on Friday 7th September in Victoria Halls.
It was great that we had a full house of people who came along on a Friday evening, an evening when the Scottish football team was playing Belgium at Hampden too. We greatly appreciate those taking the time out to spend with us. We won’t mention the score-line in the football but, at least our audience felt entertained enough and gave us fantastic feedback afterwards.
Our Chief Executive, Pamela, kicked off the evening highlighting that she didn’t initially get into politics to debate the constitution, she got into politics because she wanted to make life better for people in her home town and across Scotland and the UK. Yet, this is the issue of the day and it must be put to bed to allow politics to fully return to the real problems being faced up and down Scotland and the UK.
Pamela also informed the audience that Scotland in Union are now more active than we have ever been. We now have more events on than ever before and a record high of active volunteers and signed up supporters.
However, Pamela reiterated that we cannot rest on this because as long as we have a nationalist government in Holyrood hell-bent on separating us from the rest of the UK, then the risk of another referendum is always there - and we will always need a pro-UK campaign that is battle-ready if that time ever comes and we need to put our case to the people of Scotland again.
Being the local MSP, Jackie Baillie is of course well-known and received a warm welcome by all in the room, regardless of political persuasion.
Jackie started off the evening with a stark warning for everyone, reminding the audience that she thinks another referendum will come around and that we need to be ready for it, “It’s not a case of if, but when” she said.
Uncertainty surrounding Brexit, party leadership battles and elections being the perfect storm that could help the nationalists achieve another vote on breaking up the UK. Jackie did mention that if indyref2 was to happen then she believes that the pro-UK argument would win again, and that it would kill the nationalists’ raison d'etre off once and for all.
Also, Jackie mentioned the hypocrisy of the SNP’s position on the EU, and how hard it would be for Scotland to become an EU member state at all.
A hypothetical independent Scotland would have no veto in the EU, and no opt-out either. It would also have to adhere to the Euro being its currency (Copenhagen Criteria) unless it has a newly formed currency with a central bank already in place, which we don’t.
Worryingly too, is that Scotland’s debt to GDP ratio is too high to get in (7.9%). EU member states must have a debt to GDP ratio of below 3.0%.
Then there is the potential veto of Scotland’s application from an EU member state, Spain. This would stop any chance of an independent Scotland gaining EU entry before the application process even begins - all because of the SNP Government's interference in internal Spanish politics with regards to Catalonia's illegal referendum on separation.
We at Scotland in Union want to play our part in stopping another unwanted and unnecessary referendum, we want Nicola to get back to the day job. And if another referendum is called, then Scotland in Union is ready for it.
We would like to thank Jackie for joining us, Victoria Halls for hosting us, and everyone who came along to this event.
These public meetings are important, and it is great to see new faces at every event we hold no matter where it is.
If you missed the last few then we do have more in the pipeline:
- Friday 28th September, Westhill (Aberdeen) we will have Andrew Bowie MP and Mike Rumbles MSP speaking alongside our North East organiser Allan Sutherland - click here for tickets.
- Thursday 4th October, Stirling – we will have local MP Stephen Kerr and our Stirlingshire organiser Douglas Brodie speaking alongside our chief executive Pamela Nash - click here for tickets.
- Wednesday 10th October, Linlithgow – we will have Tom Kerr, Provost of West Lothian, speaking alongside our North East organiser Allan Sutherland - click here for tickets.
We are also holding a Coffee Morning in Helensburgh on Saturday 22nd September. Contact our campaigns manager Andrew Skinner (andrew.skinner@scotlandinunion.co.uk) for more information.
Click here to see a full list of our upcoming events.
Click here to donate towards campaign, ensuring that we can continue to hold more events up and down Scotland.