THE European Movement in Scotland (EMiS) is the oldest pro-Europe organisation in Scotland. It is part of a Europe-wide movement set up in the wake of World War Two by people of many political persuasions who believed in European political and economic integration as the best route to securing peace, stability and prosperity across Europe.
Over its many decades of existence, EMiS membership has included people from all the Scottish political parties represented at Holyrood and Westminster. Today, we have a former Labour MEP as our president and vice-presidents from the SNP, Scottish Greens, Labour and LibDems. SNP MP Stephen Gethins serves on our executive committee. We also act as the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Europe at Holyrood and actively support moves to have a similar body for Scottish MPs set up at Westminster.
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EMiS takes no position on the Scottish constitutional question. We make it a virtue for EMiS to be outside that debate. Our ambition is to see Scotland back inside the institutions of the EU at the earliest possible time, whether as a sovereign independent state or as part of the United Kingdom. Our role is the promotion of European integration. It is being a broad church that gives us the legitimacy and credibility to reach out to those who have the power to change the status quo.
Much of the mainstream media in Scotland and the UK is either strongly anti-Europe or reluctant to be perceived to be pro-Europe. That restricts the number of opportunities available to us to have our messages publicly heard. Consequently, we must make the best use of the space we are able to secure.
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As a mainly voluntary organisation we must point our resources where they are most likely to bear fruit. There is clear and immediate urgency to resolve issues such as freedom of movement, work permits for travelling artist and performers, access to the single market, readmittance to Erasmus and regaining our top-table status in European research and development. Only the Labour government in London currently has the power to negotiate these matters with the EU. We must practice the art of what is possible in the political world we find ourselves in at any moment in time.
While our continuing viability and effectiveness requires that we take no formal position on union or independence, we do recognise the desire within our membership for free and open discussion on the matter. That has long been our position. Indeed, we are presently finalising the arrangements for a debate between our president, David Martin and vice-president, Alyn Smith, that will provide a platform for both sides of the EU/independence/union debate to be heard. Other initiatives will follow.
David Clarke
Chair, EMiS
REGARDING your Tuesday front page, “Give us our land back” applies just as much here as to Australia. It’s high time the Scottish Government implemented the 2022 recommendation of the Land Commission that a full cadastral survey of Scotland be undertaken, with a view to fiscal redistribution. The trousering of publicly created land/location values, mainly through infrastructure investment, must end.
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Green MSP Mark Ruskell has tabled a written question on this subject, with a reply expected at the end of the month. Given the dilatoriness of the Scottish Government so far (Lord knows why), we in the Scottish Land Revenue Group are not holding our breath.
George Morton
Rosyth
AS the time approaches when we wear red poppies for remembrance, please remember that the many people who died in Britain’s wars did not die for freedom.
For the most part they lost their lives in the service of British colonialism, Empire and the aiming for reactionary ends. Which is exactly what is going on in Palestine, Lebanon and every other corner of the world into which the arms industry stretches its evil tentacles.
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In the words of Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier of the First World War, “War is organised murder, nothing else ... politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder.”
Ernest Hemingway said: “Never think that war, no matter necessary, nor how justified is not a crime”.
The red poppy and remembrance are used NOT to promote genuine peace, but instead to turn grief into legitimacy for militarism and start yet more wars for the benefit of the arms industry.
This year, instead of supporting the arms industry, which has already killed more than 100,00 innocent civilians in Palestine and Lebanon, and injured countless numbers, support the Peace Pledge Union and wear a white poppy.
Join the Peace Pledge Union – www.ppu.org.uk. No more bloodshed. CEASEFIRE NOW.
Margaret Forbes
Blanefield
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