Brian Wilson: ‘Shamelessly, cynically misled on EU’

SNP’s continued disingenuousness over Europe speaks volumes about how it serves its own interests, writes Brian Wilson

When the story first broke that the Scottish Government had never sought legal advice about Scotland’s future place in the EU, the newspaper that put the boot in hardest was – somewhat counter-intuitively – the Sun.

Mr Salmond was depicted with a Pinocchio-style nose alongside the headline: “EU Liar”. Why should this have been? Quite simply, no journalist likes being taken for granted and deliberately misled – as the Sun perceived to have happened to it in this case.

Now the whole of Scotland is entitled to respond in the same way. We have all been shamelessly, repeatedly, cynically misled on this central question to the constitutional debate for a period of years, as the unambiguous statements by the president of the EU, José Manuel Barroso, confirm.

But it is not only Mr Salmond’s nose that is in need of attention. The task of sweeping-up after him has been awarded to his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, who is now to “seek talks” with Mr Barroso. The best that can be said of this salvage operation is that it has been mounted several years too late.

Let us go back five years to 11 December 2007, when Ms Sturgeon gave evidence to Holyrood’s Europe and external relations committee and asserted, very specifically, that there would be no need to renegotiate EU membership after Scotland voted for independence.

She continued: “It is the very clear view of the SNP and of the government that Scotland would automatically be a member of the European Union upon independence. There is very clear legal opinion that backs up that position. I don’t think the legal position, therefore, is in any doubt”.

The Scotsman’s report of that meeting noted: “The Scottish Government was last night unable to supply details of the legal advice that Ms Sturgeon said she had on the issue of EU membership”. Five years later, there is still no sign of that legal advice for the straightforward reason that it has never existed.

So was Ms Sturgeon’s dismissive assertion to a Holyrood committee a straightforward untruth – at least as untrue, in fact, as the statements that her boss has come to grief over five years later? If that is the case, and if the Scottish Parliament has enough self-respect to insist that ministers do not treat it in that way, then why should she not resign?