Pictured: Alistair beside Burns' Statue in Ayr.

Be Britain still to Britain true,
Amang oursel's united;
For never but by British hands
Must British wrangs be righted.
Robert Burns : Does Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat?

"ANTI-EUROPEAN UNION SENTIMENT SEEMS TO BE MAINLY AN ENGLISH CONCERN. ISN'T IT JUST A LITTLE ENGLANDER THING?"
We have a Big Britain mentality, not a Little Englander mentality. That's why we're concerned about Scotland's industry and jobs, Scotland's money, Scotland's government and Scotland's democracy. Anybody who is concerned about these issues must also be concerned about the negative influence of the EU. Scotland can only stand to prosper, both economically and politically, if we leave the EU.

TAKE, FOR EXAMPLE, THE EFFECT ON INDUSTRY AND JOBS.
Look at the £1billion Ministry of Defence ferry order which should go to Govan. However, the order is likely to go to Germany because the British government is unwilling to help support the cost of the project here at home - because to do so would break EU rules. John Reid, the Scottish Secretary, has stated that the Government is constrained within European Union rules and is not prepared to step outside them, in order to subsidise the Govan yard. ("Reid plays it by the EU rules", The Herald, 18-4-00, p. 6)

If we were out of the EU then such home industry could be properly supported.

The EU is the key cause behind the de-industrialisation of Scotland. The decline of the fishing, farming, coal, ship-building and steel industry are all directly related to EU membership.

It is EU integration and regulation which is costing us jobs.

TAKE THE FISHING INDUSTRY.
If we are to achieve our policy objectives of rebuilding fishing communities and ensuring proper environmental management of fish stocks, we must re-establish control of the 200-mile exclusive fishing zone. That can't be done so long as the EU is allowed to plunder our fishing waters.

TAKE FARMING.
If we get out of the EU we will save the £11 billion a year which we currently give the EU and we could use that money to fund a new set of subsidies, targeted towards a more sustainable programme which encourages national self-sufficiency, small farms, mixed farming, land fertility, young farmers, farm start-ups, rural employment, local production and distribution networks, organic production, food quality, and projects which protect the environment

In short, it is clear that membership of the EU blocks the road forward to re-building industry and creating jobs in Scotland, and throughout Britain.

IF SCOTLAND STAYS IN THE EU, IT WILL LOSE ITS OIL FIELDS.
Written into the Treaties which the government has signed is a clause which will be used to claim Scotland's oil as a common resource for the entire EU. Preambles 8 and 10 of Title 2 of the Consolidated Treaty Establishing the European Community (p. 25) state that every member of the EU has "Resolved by thus pooling their resources ... to create a European Community." This will happen if the EU considers it has conditioned the people sufficiently to accept such a move.

Unless we want Scotland's oil to become Europe's oil, we need to get out of the EU, and get back into the world again.

THE EFFECT ON THE PUBLIC PURSE
Britain is a net contributor to the EU purse. We will have more money to spend on public services if we leave the EU.

Money is draining out of Scotland: Money that could be used to fund public services right here, right now. The Scottish taxpayer is subsidising the poorer economies of Europe and that situation is only going to get worse as the EU expands and brings in the even poorer economies of Eastern Europe.

The projects in Scotland which claim to be funded by the EU simply represent our own money coming back to us!

Scotland, and all of Britain, can only stand to prosper if we leave the EU.

THE EFFECT ON GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY
Politically, whether at Holyrood or Westminster, Scotland will be free to develop policies in response to its own particular needs. So long as we remain members of the EU we are required to put the supposed interests of the EU as a whole before the interests of Scotland or Britain. All laws, whether at Holyrood or Westminster, are either set by Brussels, or have to be framed within the limits allowed by Brussels.

That is bad for democracy and it's bad for Scotland. Our democratically elected representatives can't properly represent our particular needs. Scotland could never have got rid of the poll tax if it had been imposed by Brussels.

"BUT SURELY, SCOTLAND NEEDS A DIRECT VOICE IN EUROPE TO SPEAK FOR ITS INTERESTS."
Britain has had a direct voice in Europe for the last 27 years and a fat lot of good it's done! Scotland too, can have a direct voice, and can talk all it likes just so long as it doesn't expect anybody to listen. Twenty-seven years of British membership have taught us that much.

The aim of the European Union is the destruction of the nation-state. The EU is against the whole idea of nation-states. It wants to promote a giant United States of Europe with one policy, one law and one economy, for all.This is bad for democracy and bad for the survival and continuing diversity of a Europe of distinct nation-states.

In any case, that whole argument misunderstands the nature of the EU. The EU exists to promote the supposed interests of the group. It does not exist to allow any one nation to promote its interests over those of another. To promote a national interest for Scotland would be against the whole ethos of membership.

"SCOTLAND CAN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT THE EU. LOOK AT THE BENEFITS SCOTLAND RECEIVES. IF SCOTLAND LEFT THE EU SHE'D BE WORSE OFF."
All the evidence suggests we can't survive if we remain within the EU! It has taken Scottish fishing waters, it has destroyed Scottish farming, it's the key cause behind the run-down of Scotland's coal, steel and ship-building industries. Next it will try to grab the oil. It's given us the Exchange Rate Mechanism, and lost us jobs, homes and businesses. The EU crushes small business and free enterprise under the dead weight of over-regulation and petty bureaucracy.

The EU means more bureaucracy, more rules, more money given away, more corruption, more unemployment, more tax and more humiliation.

Scotland's interests will be best served as part of a United Kingdom, independent from the European Union, and engaged with the world.

"WHY ARE YOU FOR BRITISH INDEPENDENCE FROM BRUSSELS BUT NOT FOR SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE FROM WESTMINSTER?"
We want to see political issues at home resolved within the context of the British Union. However, we believe on principle that political, economic and legal sovereignty should be vested in the people, and in the governing institutions in Britain. Therefore if we were for a Scotland independent from Westminster, we would argue for it to be independent from Brussels also, in line with that belief - unlike the SNP which believes in the impossible notion of "independence in Europe".

"OPINION POLLS SUGGEST THAT SCOTS DO NOT SEE EUROPE AS AN ISSUE."
Europe is not the issue. The issue is the European Union and government by the European Union. If Scots believe that is not an issue then they are saying that government is not an issue; or democracy, or money, or jobs or diversity.

Many Scots are concerned about the European Union. They need to translate that concern into voting for a Party which is standing up and saying that we must get out of the EU and get back into the world again.

"SCOTLAND WANTS TO BE PART OF EUROPE" (Jimmy Reid in The Herald, 8th July 1998, p.17)
We're not talking about Europe the continent. We are talking about the European Union, the political state which governs almost every aspect of our lives. So long as we remain within the European Union, Scotland, and Britain, is no longer free to develop its own policies, make its own laws, keep its own currency and control its own economy in response to its own needs.

"WHY COMPLAIN ABOUT EUROPE IMPOSING POLICIES UPON SCOTLAND WHEN WESTMINSTER HAS IMPOSED BAD POLICIES ON SCOTLAND. JUST LOOK AT THE POLL TAX!"
At least we can vote out the people in Westminster. If Brussels had imposed the Poll Tax we could never have got rid of it.

"WELL, I'D RATHER BE RULED FROM BRUSSELS THAN BY WESTMINSTER"
You can vote out the people in Westminster. You can't vote out the people in Brussels. Why do you prefer to be ruled by something you have no democratic control over?

"SCOTLAND WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF SHE WAS INDEPENDENT WITHIN EUROPE. SO LONG AS SHE REMAINS WITHIN THE UK, HER INTERESTS IN EUROPE ARE SUBORNED TO A WIDER BRITISH INTEREST, WHICH MAY ONLY SERVE ENGLAND."
The aim of the EU is to act in the supposed interest of the group as a whole and not in the interest of an individual member, whether that's Scotland, or England, or Britain, or anybody else.

So long as we remain within the EU, then the particular Scottish interest, or the overall British interest, is always suborned to the supposed European Union interest, and very often that is in neither the interest of Scotland nor Britain.

"THE EXAMPLE OF THE UK ECONOMIC SYSTEM SHOWS THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE A SINGLE CURRENCY BETWEEN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES: SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND, FOR EXAMPLE. SURELY, SCOTLAND HAS ALWAYS HAD A SINGLE CURRENCY WITH ENGLAND AND IT HAS DONE NO HARM"
On the contrary, the example of the UK is a good example of how difficult it is to organise an economic system which can serve equally the best interests of all. An economic policy which applies to the South of England, doesn't necessarily always apply to the North of Scotland. Some regions are more depressed than others. Government grants to the regions are the only way to even up the disparity. The way to avoid this is for Scotland to have its own currency. This is not being proposed by the SNP.

Apply a single economic policy across the different economies of Europe and the same problems which occur throughout Britain will occur throughout Europe. Unemployment in Britain will rise to keep inflation low in Germany. In addition, the Scottish taxpayer will be required to subsidise the poorest regions of Europe.

In that event, neither Scotland nor England will be able to control their economies, whether through a joint British economy or two separately functioning ones.

Let's get out the EU, get into the real world again, keep the pound forever, keep democratic control over the economy, and by our own good example, show the way to a new Europe built on democracy, diversity and self-determination for all.

"SCOTLAND HAS A GREATER AFFINITY WITH EUROPE THAN ENGLAND, AS A RESULT OF ITS PARTICULAR HISTORY AND CULTURE."
Scottish history and culture doesn't differ substantially from English history and culture in this respect. For example:
"Mary Queen of Scots may have come to the Scottish throne via the French one, but her real interest was the throne of England. In the meantime no less than five kings of England had died on French soil pursuing their own claims to the throne of France.

"Shakespeare and Chaucer were just as aware of European history, geography and literature as any figure of the Scottish Reformation or Enlightenment.

"However, the main point to note is that the histories and cultures of England and Scotland have exerted much more influence on each other than they have on Europe, or Europe has on them." (Dr. Alan Sked, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Post-War Britain, p. 108)

"IT IS BETTER FOR SCOTLAND TO BE INDEPENDENT IN EUROPE THAN SUBSERVIENT IN BRITAIN."
It is not possible for Scotland to be "independent in Europe". That is a contradiction in terms. Scotland must come out of the EU and we believe it should do that as a partner in a United Kingdom, which is independent from the European Union, and engaged with the world.

"IF SCOTLAND SHARES SOVEREIGNTY WITH ENGLAND WHY CAN'T IT SHARE IT WITH EUROPE?"
The question to ask is how much is lost, and how much is gained, in the process. We argue that Scotland loses more when she shares sovereignty with the EU than she ever loses with England.

"AS LONG AS SHE REMAINS PART OF THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM, SCOTLAND DOESN'T HAVE ANY SOVEREIGNTY TO LOSE."
Scotland has sovereignty which is expressed and exercised at Westminster, just as Westminster expresses and exercises the sovereignty of England, Wales and Ulster. If Westminster loses its authority then the sovereignty of all the members of Britain is diminished.

"SURELY THE PRINCIPLE OF 'SUBSIDIARITY' PROTECTS SCOTLAND'S DIVERSITY AND DEMOCRACY AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL."
The word subsidiarity is descended from the word subsidiary, and a subsidiary is subservient to a superior.

Subsidiarity is power retained at the level of the superior. You do not have autonomy. You are simply allowed room to act within the boundaries permitted by the superior.

You do not have the authority to ignore laws, overturn laws, or adapt laws for your own ends. Any attempt to do so would be quickly deemed illegal by the European Court of Justice.

For example, Protocol 30, Paragraph 2, on page 153 of the Consolidated Treaty on European Union states, "The application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality shall respect the general provisions and the objectives of the Treaty, particularly as regards the maintaining in full of the acquis communautaire ..." In other words, subsidiarity is subservience to the acquis communautaire - which means the whole body of legislation under which the European Union operates. Since the acquis communautaire overrides the principle of subsidiarity, the principle of subsidiarity cannot be used to repeal EU Directives. Any attempt to do so would be illegal.

Further, Paragraph 3 of Protocol 30 states, "The principle of subsidiarity does not call into question the powers conferred on the European Community by the Treaty, as interpreted by the Court of Justice."
In other words, what the top says, goes - at every level.