Outdated advice

Having neither requested nor received any formal legal advice, both First Minister Alex Salmond and his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, have apparently relied on “numerous, eminent, legal authorities” to support their assertions that an independent Scotland would seamlessly continue as a member of the European Union.

In fact, of the (only) three commentators on whom they have relied, Emile Noel and Eamonn Gallagher were both senior European bureaucrats and only Lord Mackenzie-Stuart, a former president of the European Court of Justice, was legally trained.

In his “opinion” (a total of 164 words in a newspaper article), he did not argue that Scotland would continue in membership, but rather that an intergovernmental conference would be required to determine the future membership of both an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Most worrying of all, the comments from these three individuals were made more than 20 years ago. In the interim, the make-up and treaties of the EU have changed out of all recognition. There have been four new major EU treaties (Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon); a more than doubling to the number of member countries and the introduction of a new multi-country currency: the euro.

Given that the legal, political and economic landscape has changed so radically, how can anyone rely on a few outdated, ad hoc comments to inform one’s country’s international policy?

The approach taken by the senior SNP leadership is symptomatic of a larger malaise. On this topic and others, they continue to exploit any opinion, however ephemeral, which supports their cause of independence and ignore any contrarian evidence, even if its weight and quality swamps their own selective data. We are being subjected not to a reasoned debate but to selective, misleading propaganda.

Peter Muirhead

Duncrag

Kilmacolm