Desperate to jump on the comments of a former president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, as a signal that an independent Scotland would now have an easier time rejoining the EU, key figures in the SNP leadership perhaps inadvertently reveal their underlying anxieties about just how difficult the EU could prove to be.
Being interviewed on the subject, Mike Russell, the SNP’s Constitutional Affairs Secretary, brushed aside concerns over the commitments required of new members to the EU, implying for example that the terms of the Common Fisheries Policy, would be renegotiated to suit Scotland’s requirements.
Mr Russell, knows full well there will be nil scope for a special case being made for Scotland on any of the sensitive core policies including fishing, agriculture, fiscal alignment and eventual use of the Euro. In the original interview, Mr Van Rompuy, made clear no special case would be made for Scotland, even if attitudes are warmer now than they were before.
Nevertheless, the SNP approach seems to be to try to simply mislead people to get their way.
Indyref2 is the SNP leadership’s current main objective, putting off to another day the likely backlash from the fishing and rural communities and others who will eventually realise their own government has knowingly betrayed their interests in pursuit of the SNP’s independence at any cost ambitions.
Keith Howell