Tristan Garel-Jones: Celts can achieve more together than apart
Opting out of the UK would prove to be a major mistake for both Scotland and Wales, writes Tristan Garel-Jones
I have to admit to a certain sneaking sympathy with the feelings of national pride and social cohesion that bind the Scots together.
I am Welsh. I had the good fortune to spend the first few years of my life, during the war, in a small mining village in South Wales. I learned Welsh. I went to Sunday school in the Bethesda Congregational Chapel. I saw coal miners coming home covered in dust.
My subsequent life has unfolded far from Wales. My parents moved to Spain. I was brought up in Madrid. My wife is Spanish. We talk Spanish at home. I came back to the UK in 1970. Was a Tory MP from 1979 to 1997. And I am now an investment banker. And yet … the Land of my Fathers remains embedded in my DNA.
Late at night, when everyone has gone to bed, I sometimes switch on the Welsh TV channel just to hear our beautiful language washing over me. When I am in some far-flung corner of the world on business, something will suddenly pop up that triggers that overwhelming sense of what we call “hiraeth” (the sense of longing for the country that we exiles feel).
My feelings towards the Welsh Nationalist Party may well be shared by many Scots, with regards to the SNP. As I say to my Plaid Cymru friends (I do have some!) – “I’m a Welsh nationalist, you’re a Welsh separatist”. Separatism, whether it be Welsh or Scottish, worries me for two main reasons.
First, it doesn’t take into account that Great Britain is much greater than the sum of its parts. No need to list them here, but Britain’s achievements right across the board of human endeavour are astonishing, given the size and location of these islands.
I believe that we Celts, without presumption, can claim to have made a disproportionate contribution to all that. Adam Smith, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bertrand Russell, John Logie Baird, David Lloyd George, Arthur Balfour, John Buchan, Aneurin Bevan – the names come tumbling out!
And if one digs around today in British universities, in the scientific community, in law, business, politics, etc, we Celts pop up all over the place.
So this notion, propagated by the separatists, that we are somehow exploited by the English is both inaccurate and patronising. Tell it not in Gath, but I believe the boot might be on the other foot!
In case anyone should imagine this is just a mass of rather romantic and sentimental twaddle, there is an immediate present-day concern: namely the relationship that an “independent” Scotland (or even Wales) would have with the European Union. The message from the separatists is that it will be all right on the night. A free Scotland in a free Europe.
Well, I’m afraid it’s not like that. All the legal advice I saw when I had some responsibility for these matters points the other way. And the position has since been strengthened under the Lisbon Treaty (Article 4(2) states that the Union “shall respect their essential state functions including ensuring the territorial integrity of the state”).
So let me be clear: there is no precedent for an existing member of the EU breaking up. Were that to happen, residual membership would lie in London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, etc. The breakaway entity could, of course, apply for membership. Were such an application to be made, unanimity would be required for accession. I can think of half a dozen members of the EU who would count up to 100 very slowly before voting to admit such a breakaway country.
Of course, the European Union is not perfect. We are still struggling to find the right balance between national sovereign independence and those areas where shared sovereignty best enables us to advance our interests and our values in the modern world. But it’s damnably cold outside!
Thus, an “independent” Scotland or Wales would be opting out of the United Kingdom – one of the greatest economic and social success stories of the last few centuries, to which they have made a disproportionately high contribution – and banging at the door to join the EU.
Once their application had failed (as I believe it would do), they could attempt to negotiate some sort of association agreement (inevitably a rather one-sided negotiation) and join the “arc of prosperity” (remember that?).
The Scottish and Welsh parliaments would then spend about 90 per cent of their time implementing EU directives over which they have no influence whatever. It’s called “fax machine diplomacy” – the Commission faxes you the directive and you implement it or else!
It’s time for us Welsh and Scottish nationalists to send the separatists packing.
• Baron Garel-Jones is a former Conservative MP and served as a whip during the Major administration. He was made a life peer in 1997
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Comments
There are 11 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Alicia Murray
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:36 PMWell they are scraping the barrel with this guy. An English Tory peer who was a banker. And he thinks any Celt will listen to him.
Proud Doonhamer
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 01:19 AMMy god, where do they dig up these relics? Is there a list somwhere? UNIONIST-CODGERS R US?
zippitydoodaa
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 01:15 PMWales is one of the poorest regions in Europe ........................................................................................................................... And this is why it should remain part of the Union? .......................................................................................................................... The Hootsmon does it again.
Dr. James Wilkie
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:32 PMI am continually amazed at the mental hangup that assumes that membership of the European Union is the norm that has to be observed, or is in some way desirable. Why? What does the EU have to offer Scotland? It is the smallest of all the major European organisations. Membership is certainly not essential for economic reasons. Scotland can trade with all 50 European states without being in the 27-member EU, and anyway economic discrimination is banned under the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Despite its efforts to hijack the European identity, the EU's development has already hit the buffers for the foreseeable future. It is a totally unacceptable economic drain on Scotland, a burden that would certainly increase with independent membership. The structural havoc that the EU has wreaked in Scotland's economy is costing us thousands of millions of pounds annually in lost wealth creation, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of jobs the EU has destroyed and the centuries-old fishing communities it has wiped out. I would offer Tristan Garel-Jones the freedom of Edinburgh if he can give us a gold-plated guarantee that Scotland will never at any time be a member of the European Union in its present form.
Dr. James Wilkie
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:55 AMTristan Garel-Jones is an Englishman with a Welsh name (quite a number of them have Scots names too, one of results of having had an empire). I remember my own stand-off with him when he led a campaign to prevent Austria from joining the then new European Union, and was making a thorough nuisance of himself. Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock gave me the job of countering the campaign, with the authority to use whatever resources of the Foreign Ministry I needed for the job. This I duly did, with the support of the Austrian embassies throughout Europe, and the campaign duly collapsed. I only once met its instigator afterwards, can't remember where, when he was superciliously polite to me. I hope that his efforts to keep Scotland out of the EU will enjoy better success than his track record.
christelijk_recht
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:49 AMTristan Garel-Jones: wrote "Once [Scotland's] application had failed (as I believe it would do), they could attempt to negotiate some sort of association agreement (inevitably a rather one-sided negotiation) and join the “arc of prosperity” (remember that?)." ......................................................................................................................... Well, the noble Lord's risible assertions with respect to Scotland being barred from entry into the EU, or greatly obstructed in doing so, have already been debunked. His reference to the Lisbon Treaty (Article 4(2) is also a canard in that Scotland was a separate independent state from England at the time of Union, and upon dissolution of that union, would revert to that status under EU Law, as indeed would the rump UK. England no more can lay claim to continuing EU membership than can Scotland. Both would be considered successor states (see my previous post). ............................................................................................................... The notion that an independent Scotland would be less independent as a member state within the EU, that it is now as a vassal state within the UK is demonstrably false on its face. .............................................................................................................................. The Baron's warning that a newly independent Scotland would, ". . spend about 90 per cent of [it's] time implementing EU directives . . ", is of course self-evident nonsense. Scotland has been implementing EU regulatory and harmonization protocols since before the UK's accession into the EU. Scotland is already a member of the EU, and its laws and procedures are already in full compliance with EU laws and directive. ........................................................................................................................................ With the best will in the world, I am left with the impression that this is conscious fear mongering by Tristan Garel-Jones. Either that or he is a lot less intellectually able than I give him credit for. ................................................................................................................... Regrettably, and with the greatest respect, it comes down to one of two possibilities: Either the Baron is being mendacious, in which case his thesis should be ignored, or he has the cognitive awareness and political acumen of a lobotomized fruit fly, in which case his thesis should be similarly discounted. ....................................................................................................... Whilst I feel certain option one is the likelier of the two, I cannot be certain, and will therefore leave it to the Good Lord and to you, to work out.
The West Awake
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:29 AMWhat a pile of patronisingTory bilge.The Baron doesn't give a hoot about Celts, he's just another unionist nobody (where do the Scotsman dredge up these people?) talking up the tottering political dodo that is the UK. I suspect his main worry is our success emboldening the Welsh to demand a new rUK after we leave, - or even p off themselves. I think we can all safely consign this trash where it belongs, along with the dreary, unending procession of unionist negative propaganda issuing relentlessly from this comic.
christelijk_recht
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:04 AMBaron Garel-Jones wrote:"The breakaway entity could, of course, apply for membership. Were such an application to be made, unanimity would be required for accession. I can think of half a dozen members of the EU who would count up to 100 very slowly before voting to admit such a breakaway country." ................................................................................................................ However, note the following: "[S]peaking to the French news agency AFP, senior officials within the EU have said that the rump UK would find itself in an identical position to a newly independent Scotland, and that both would have to renegotiate the terms of their entry into the EU. . . lawyers for the EU . . said an independent Scotland could be treated as one of two successor states, and that a separate seat for Edinburgh would require only a simple majority vote. No single EU member would have a veto. . . A lawyer for the EU told the news agency that a deal could be "done by the [European] Council, using qualified majority voting and with the required say-so of the European Parliament." "
christelijk_recht
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:36 AMI can only concur with my esteemed colleague and mentor, Professor Emeritus, Tennis C. Williams when he commends the admonition of Iain Gray, that "debate is the last resort of the scoundrel". ..................................................................................................................... Lord Williams has oft cautioned Westminster colleagues and other defenders of this united Realm, not to fall into the separatist trap of attempting to answer the loaded question: "What is your positive case for Scotland remaining in the Union". Thankfully, to date he has been wholly successful in this endeavor, in that no Unionist has been baited into attempting an answer. ....................................................................................................................... The ONLY possible response, as the Noble Lord points out, is to declare that that case is self evident and requires no articulation. If the separatists cybernattery, their controllers is the SNP, and the Scottish Executive, are unable to fathom this, that is THEIR deficit, and one that is for THEM to resolve. ..................................................................................................................... I thank Baron Garel-Jones for his splendid pep talk that I am sure will find great favor among the common folk in our most northern province - certainly my faithful gillie Jock, up there liked it. You know, I have always found the Scotch to be splendid chaps; extremely loyal to their commanding officers in times of war, and faithful servants to their employer is times of peace. We are all in this together, what?
Ron Greer
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 08:11 AMI was in the SNP for 30 years and I am now in the Scottish Democratic Alliance, a truly nationalist party. Despite my criticisms of the SNP, in all that time I never met a separatist, nor now in the SDA. What I have encountered are people who wish Scotland to cease being isolated from the world and join in on our own account. Oh to be as 'separatist' as Norway or Switzerland and as poor and as far away from the markets!
Tennis C. Williams
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 06:24 AMAn excellent article by a Welsh investment banker and former Conservative MP that will make many a Separatist think again about the forgotten advantages of our great Union. He correctly states "... it doesn’t take into account that Great Britain is much greater than the sum of its parts." That sentence sums up all the reasons for Scotland to remain firmly entrenched in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland. The good Baron avoids the mistake of going into any boring and superfluous details as to why we are so much greater than the sum of our parts, for the simple reason that it is so obviously true. We Unionists should be using more slogans and less arguments, which are sometimes extremely difficult to formulate and can be easily countered, otherwise we end up like the now defunct Soviet Union. I think it was our own Iain Gray who said that debate was the last resort of the scoundrel. I say: United we stand, divided we fall - from a great height. Scots (and Welsh) Nationalist s(sorry, Separatists) beware.
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