Tristan Garel-Jones: Celts can achieve more together than apart

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