It is not surprising that the First Minister has urged David Cameron to “think twice” about campaigning in Scotland for Britain to remain in the EU. It was she after all who exploited so mercilessly the fact that Labour and the Conservatives were campaigning on the same side during the independence referendum. The last thing she wants is for her pro-EU pitch to be similarly tainted by association with the “Toxic Tories”.
However, Mr Cameron is right not to let this SNP angst prevent him from travelling north next week to urge Scots to vote against Brexit. He is the Prime Minister and the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU is unavoidably associated with him personally, after his high profile renegotiation of Britain’s terms of membership. It would be faintly ludicrous to try and repel him at the border.
The SNP must find a way to live with the fact that after blaming the Prime Minister and his Chancellor for all evils ad nauseum, they now find themselves on the same side in the referendum debate. Scottish Government ministers can at least take comfort from the fact that this time, there are Tories on both sides of the argument. If the Conservative Prime Minister and Chancellor look a little unpalatable as bedfellows, the combination of Michael Gove, Michael Howard, Lord Lawson and Boris Johnson on the other side is probably even more alarming a prospect to Scottish voters.
What is more, Labour’s big hitters are largely in favour of remaining, much like the SNP, so the Nationalists’ arch rivals are in no position to exploit the SNP’s alignment with the Conservative Prime Minister.
For the SNP, there is no escaping the fact that some of the arguments being marshalled by the Chancellor and Prime Minister are key to winning the referendum. Following the announcement by Mayor of London Johnson that he favoured leaving the EU, sterling slumped to its lowest point in nearly seven years. In those circumstances, the chancellor George Osborne’s warning that leaving the EU would represent “a profound economic shock” for the UK, certainly had the ring of truth to it. This referendum is indeed as Mr Osborne says about people’s jobs, livelihoods and living standards. If the SNP have learned anything from their own referendum failure, it is surely that fears among voters over the economy in general and their livelihoods in particular, are what tend ultimately to decide the day.
It is the view of this newspaper that the UK should remain in the EU. That is not to suggest that we have no worries about the way it currently operates. The EU needs to be more open and transparent, and there is genuine cause for concern about how non Eurozone countries ensure that their voices are heeded in Brussels. But in spite of its flaws, the European Union and its predecessor organisations have been a success, ensuring peace and prosperity in western Europe for 70 years and underpinning the economic prosperity of Britain and other nations. What those who support remaining in the EU must now do is put their party political differences to one side and ensure that voters understand what is at stake if they vote to leave.
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