The view from Yes for EU – Part 2: what are they campaigning for?

Pro-EU groups south of the border – what are they campaigning for?

by Morag Williamson, Yes for EU team

It’s great to see that pro-EU organisations based south of the border are alive and kicking, including the European Movement UK (EMUK), Grassroots for Europe (GfE), and National Rejoin March (NRM). In Yes for EU we naturally focus our campaign activities on our own twin aims of independence and EU membership for Scotland, however we also support in spirit the pro-EU efforts by England-based groups.

European Movement UK street stall
Image credit: europeanmovement.co.uk

Note, however, that these groups do not constitute a homogeneous movement – they vary in their pro-EU aims. The European Movement UK (EMUK) is the foremost and most influential of the England-based pro-EU organisations. Their leadership team currently comprises Mike Galsworthy, Caroline Lucas and Dominic Grieve, all with impeccable anti-Brexit credentials. According to their website, EMUK’s perspective on the EU-UK relationship is that: “The UK’s economic and political interests, and the global pursuit of our shared values of peace, freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law are best achieved through the UK rebuilding closer ties with the European Union [my italics]…. The European Movement’s mission now is to address head-on the issue that UK politics is avoiding: acknowledging and highlighting the damaging impacts of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. It is in the UK’s national interest to reverse that damage and build back our relationship with the EU.” [my italics]. All good stuff, but there is no mention of seeking EU membership; EMUK’s vision for the UK is evidently not to Rejoin.

European Movement in Scotland President’s Blog, August 2024
Image credit: euromovescotland.org.uk

This aim of ‘rebuilding closer ties with the EU’ is a gradualist or incrementalist approach, which urges the UK government to negotiate with the EU to obtain specific benefits step-by-step, such as access to the single market and customs union, freedom of movement, visas for artists and musicians, full access to Erasmus and European research programmes etc. The European Movement in Scotland (EMiS) appears to be adopting this approach too. In a letter published in the National (22/10/2024), EMiS Chair David Clarke states that their “ambition is to see Scotland back inside the institutions of the EU at the earliest possible time”. This stops short of saying they want Scotland to be a member, or even that they want the UK to be a member again. It also fails to elaborate on Scotland’s possible routes back to EU membership – ie either via independence or as part of the UK – but setting that important issue aside for the moment, the point here is that instead of campaigning for Scotland or the UK to join/rejoin, EMUK and EMiS see the UK Labour government as the best hope of trying to recover, piecemeal, some of our lost EU benefits (reminder: this is a government that has stated time and again that it will ‘make Brexit work’, with a leader who says Britain will not rejoin the EU in his lifetime).

A contrasting approach is presented by another England-based pro-EU organisation, Reboot Britain. It has published a ‘White Paper’ by its founder, Peter Cook, who puts a detailed cross-party case for the UK to rejoin the EU. The paper sets out ‘Five Strategies to Rejoin’, and the group is pursuing a campaign of letter-writing to MPs and high-profile figures to seek support for Rejoining outright. The paper is here: Reboot Britain – Rejoin EU.pdf – Google Drive. There are online meetings every Monday evening at 8pm, open to everyone interested, and full details of the campaign are here.

Reboot Britain campaigns for UK to Rejoin outright
Image credit: brexitrage.com

Reboot Britain rejects the incrementalist position, which Cook also refers to as ‘fundamentalist’. He claims that “1000 ameliorations through a series of micro deals will not get the UK to a point of sustainable growth and resilience.” He argues that incrementalism may ultimately be self-defeating, as it may result in the UK never reaching the goal of Rejoining the EU: some sectors of the population will gradually have their needs satisfied and the overall number of those who wish to Rejoin will decline. From the EU perspective, politicians tend to be sceptical of the incrementalist approach, seeing it as a continuation of British ‘cakeism’, whereby the UK government apparently still believes it can extract benefits from the EU, which are actually membership benefits, but without seeking to become a member.

As fellow UK citizens, we in Yes for EU sympathise with the pro-EU folk south of the border and we support the spirit of their campaign efforts. As fellow grassroots campaigners constantly trying to make the most effective use of limited resources, we recognise that the question they are dealing with now down south is whether to engage in a protracted series of many minor battles for small gains, ie an incrementalist approach, or embark on one major battle for the whole package of benefits, namely EU membership. We would encourage them not to be timid in the face of current Westminster party politics which pander to the right; we urge them to reject incrementalism, which not only lacks ambition but is also likely to be ineffective. Indeed, with Rejoiners now in the majority in the population – even in England! – the case for a decisive government policy to Rejoin is stronger than ever right now. A vigorous UK-wide ‘Rejoin now!’ campaign would not be inconsistent with Yes for EU’s aims; indeed, if explicit support for Scottish independence and the break-up of the UK were to be incorporated into the campaign, this would be in our mutual interest: it would enhance the campaign rationale and offer more than one potential way forward – not just EU membership for the UK, and not just EU membership for Scotland, but EU membership for England and the other nations! 

The view from Yes for EU – Part 1: the potential of Scottish independence

Pro-EU bodies in England continue to campaign, but are blind to the potential of Scottish independence for hastening the return of all four nations to the EU. 

by Morag Williamson, Yes for EU team

It’s not just we Scots who are campaigning to get back into the EU – the pro-EU movement down south is increasingly active, and that’s good to see. In the years 2016-19 many of us campaigned against Brexit, and we had strong links with anti-Brexit pro-EU groups south of the border. Following the 2019 general election result and the inevitability of Brexit, we created this Yes for EU group, and we maintained links for a while; but although pro-EU groups in England generally understood and empathised with Scots’ anger at our democratic wish to remain in the EU being ignored by Westminster, there was little interest in our potential route back to the EU via Scottish independence.

National Rejoin March, 28th September 2024, London
Source: marchforrejoin.co.uk

Naturally we empathise with the many Remainers south of the border – now the majority of the English population – who, unlike Scots, now have no pro-Rejoin political party to vote for, and no clear route back to the EU. They had high hopes that the long-awaited new Labour government, finally elected in July 2024, would see sense and aim to rejoin the EU, but the opposite has happened; in spite of its whopping majority at Westminster, Labour has doubled down on its absurd ‘make Brexit work’ policy. Pro-EU organisations such as Grassroots for Europe, European Movement UK, National Rejoin March etc are faced with Labour obduracy that is little different from that of the previous Tory administration. And in any case, in just a few short years, the UK government may well pass into Tory Brexiter hands again, but next time round potentially under pressure from a strong  Reform UK presence in the Westminster Parliament.

Prof David Edgerton: “The breakup of the union may be one of the few good things to come out of Brexit”
Source: New York Times nytimes.com

With one or two notable exceptions, pro-EU campaigners in England tend to show limited understanding or interest in Scottish politics. Why would they, when UK mainstream media repeatedly claim that the independence movement is history?  Scottish independence is either ignored in the media or it is misperceived as being synonymous with the SNP, or something that self-evidently should be opposed. Likewise, pro-EU bodies in England frame their campaign only in terms of the UK-EU relationship, ignoring differences in public opinion across the four nations; on their websites, in email newsletters, and on their social media posts, there is an unquestioned assumption that the union is a permanent fixture and must be preserved. Any possibility of ‘break-up’ of the union is regarded as a threat to be avoided at all costs. In one sense this is not a surprise as the pro-EU organisations are inevitably composed of mostly unionist political party supporters, however it is disappointing to see their collective lack of ability, or unwillingness, to think beyond the constitutional status quo. Issues of Scottish and/or Welsh independence, and Irish reunification, and their relevance to relationships with the EU, are given precious little consideration. Yet many political analysts agree that these major constitutional changes are entirely possible, even probable, and perhaps desirable. Indeed, the notion of the break-up of Britain was thoroughly discussed at an event of that title held in Edinburgh in 2023, with a line-up of high-profile speakers; ‘The Break Up of Britain’ was also the title of Tom Nairn’s 1977 book, which had inspired the event and prompted discussion of an alternative vision for our islands’ constitutional future. A number of other historians and political commentators have likewise embraced the positive potential of a ‘break up’. As historian Professor David Edgerton wrote in 2020 in the New York Times, “The breakup of the union certainly won’t be easy but it may be one of the few good things to come out of Brexit — not just for Scotland and Ireland but also, and perhaps especially, for England.”  

Break Up Of Britain conference held in Edinburgh on 18th November 2023
Source: thebreakupofbritain.net

Our view in Yes for EU is that a newly-independent Scotland, which is embarking on the EU accession process, will likely prompt England / other nations of rUK to follow suit. In other words, by bringing about Britain’s break-up, Scottish independence will be good not just for Scots but for everyone else too. It will provide an opportunity for England / rUK to overhaul their constitution, and improve the quality of democratic and accountability processes; there is now widespread recognition that the UK’s unwritten constitution is not fit for purpose, and democracy is being undermined. We therefore view the prospect of Britain’s break-up as beneficial for all. Rather surprisingly, we have seen no evidence to date of any pro-EU groups actively discussing the range of possible constitutional developments arising from the independence and reunification movements in three of the four UK nations, nor consideration of the implications for relationships with the EU; we therefore encourage pro-EU campaigners south of the border to explore such potential developments. Anthony Barnett, of Europe for Scotland, told the Break-Up of Britain’ conference in 2023: “It is … the duty of progressive England to positively urge Scotland on to independence in Europe.” The end of this dysfunctional union will hasten each individual nation’s steps towards joining the EU – that’s why we encourage Rejoiners from south of the border to support the campaign for Scottish independence; their support will be greatly welcomed by independence supporters here in Scotland. 

Scottish independence no longer scares economists.


EUROPA TODAY

by Fabio Peterlongo

05 October 2020

British businesses no longer fear Scotland’s independence. This is what emerges from a poll published by the London Times on 2 October. As many as 54% of business executives surveyed suggested that the separation of Scotland from the UK would not “create problems”, while only 22% consider it a risk factor from an economic point of view. Thus, one of the strong elements of the unionist “discourse” seems to be cracking, the one according to which Scottish independence would hurt the economy. It had always been said: Scotland too isolated to stand alone, the British economies too integrated to separate.

Meanwhile, the political climate also seems to have changed. While the first Scottish minister Nicola Sturgeon (independence activist, expression of the Scottish National Party) registers an unprecedented peak in popularity, polls indicate that a new referendum for independence could give the opposite result to that of 2014, when the “no” the separation from the United Kingdom won with 55% prevailing on the “yes” to the separation. This was revealed by a Yougov poll published on August 12, which indicates that the Scots in favor of independence would be 52%, a share never reached before.

Fostering this new trend would be the combined action of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, managed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a manner considered by the most “disastrous” as suggested by the meager 20% of popularity that Johnson enjoys in Scotland . On the contrary, Prime Minister Sturgeon collects what was sown in the lockdown, when it appeared every day on Scottish TV, communicating in an empathic and reassuring way, but imposing more severe contagion containment measures than in other regions of Great Britain. By August Sturgeon’s popularity had skyrocketed to a staggering 72%. Even the Scots opposed to independence promote it: 59% of them indicate that the “first minister” has done well in times of pandemic. 

The element is crucial: with the 1998 devolution, health care has become the responsibility of Scottish institutions. The pandemic has shown the Scots an unprecedented centrality of the government of Edinburgh, previously perceived as relegated to legislating on secondary issues. Scotland was perceived to be efficient in managing the crisis, in contrast to the chaos that reigns in Westminster and Downing Street. This is confirmed by the political analyst of the “Courier” David Clegg: “Covid-19 has brought with it this strange by-product. All the questions about the economy, the position of Scotland in the world and the risks of breaking the bonds of three centuries of shared history, have been reduced to a much simpler question: Nicola Sturgeon or Boris Johnson? “.

After the defeat of the separatists in 2014, Brexit had intervened to inflate the consensus for self-government requests: the “no” at the exit of the European Union remain won in Scotland with 62% of the vote, revealing a widespread pro-European sentiment. The Scots seem to consider community institutions as a guarantee “counterpart” to the central Westminster government. The results of the 2019 general elections are also in line: if at national level Boris Johnson triumphed with 43%, in Scotland the “Tories” collected a modest 25%, down by 3 points compared to 2017. Thus, in the last two years , the requests from the SNP for a new referendum for independence to be celebrated in the vicinity of the next elections to the Scottish Parliament, scheduled for 2021, in which an agile victory of the SNP is expected, which it would give a further signal to London.“

But Boris Johnson’s veto is looming, who in January rejected calls for a new vote: “We will not allow another referendum that would confirm the political stagnation in which Scotland has been in for a decade, with Scottish hospitals, jobs and schools again left behind in due to a separation campaign from the United Kingdom “. Johnson does not intend to take the risk that Prime Minister David Cameron had taken, who granted the 2014 referendum in the belief that the “no” would win. But if Cameron was saved by the broken headset in the Scottish referendum, the same did not happen in the Brexit referendum: there too a “remain” victory was looming, advocated by the former conservative prime minister himself. But surprisingly they won the “leave” and the first head to roll was that of Cameron. “

An error that Johnson does not intend to repeat by authorizing a consultation with an unexpected outcome. Sturgeon’s protests are worth little, as he replied to Johnson in a clear- cut manner: ” The Tories are terrified that Scotland will exercise its right to choose its future. But democracy will prevail.” The game for independence risks shattering the rocky nationalism of Boris Johnson, who does not want to transform himself from Churchill’s emulator into the one who made the dissolution of the United Kingdom possible.“

You can read the Italian version here: https://europa.today.it/attualita/scozia-indipendenza-coronavirus.html