Red Line

Pauline Bryan writes:

The SNP’s own image of an independent Scotland was described in the 2013 white paper Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland, as follows:

“If we vote for independence, the eyes of the world will be on Scotland as our ancient nation emerges — again — as an independent country. Scotland will become the 29th member of the European Union and the 194th member of the United Nations.”

In fact, the one thing that unites nearly every elected member of the Scottish Parliament is support for the EU. The Scottish Greens, the Lib Dems and even the Scottish Conservatives have avoided the splits they have in Westminster.

And of course Scottish Labour, with a few exceptions, is pro-EU. 

Many labour movement supporters hark back to the days of Thatcherism and the EU’s promise of social protection, but in reality it has delivered wage “flexibility” and has left today’s workforce at the mercy of zero-hours contracts, phoney self-employment and falling wages.

Even if there had not been such a devastating banking crash in 2008, the EU’s programme of economic governance, particularly within the eurozone, was to use wages as the main instrument for adjusting its economy.

Under a common currency there is no flexibility in currency adjustment to influence competitiveness; the only tool left is wage devaluation.

New members of the EU are required to accept its neoliberal programme as a means of gaining entry. Its convergence criterion states that a prospective member:

“must demonstrate the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the union; a free interplay of market forces (including liberalised prices and trade); limited state influence on competitiveness.”

The SNP, while denying any beneficial effects of being in Britain, believes that being in the EU “is in the best interests of Scotland.”  The Scottish government’s statement on the EU says:

“The economic gains of the EU need to be shared among all Europe’s citizens and the EU social agenda should protect the rights and interests of workers and families, without stifling labour markets or undermining economic competitiveness.” 

So, it is argued that the social agenda can only deliver benefits as long as it does not “stifle labour markets” or “undermine economic competitiveness.” 

The Scottish government has now found that its own pet project, the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) which aimed to deliver new projects without incurring increased public debt, has been declared unacceptable by the European Union.

Instead of exposing this reduction of sovereignty, as they would have done if it had come from Westminster, they accept it and quietly get on with it. 

The SFT’s hub programme included plans for building schools and hospitals as well as a major road project. The Guardian disclosed a confidential SFT document in an article in July 2015. The article stated:

“The [EU] restriction means that private contractors and lenders will now pay all the upfront building and project costs, which will be added to the long-term debt of NHS boards, local councils and the road agency Transport Scotland. That debt, plus interest, is then paid off by authorities over a series of decades via regular payments known as unitary charges.” 

The effect will be to lift the restrictions on the profits that the private sector can make by increasing their shares from a maximum of 60 per cent to 80 per cent. 

The SFT document explained that the new approach would ensure that projects will be counted as privately owned and funded so that they are not added to the Scottish government’s balance sheets.

It states: “Any perception of public-sector control of the [project] delivery company must be avoided.” 

The result is the same as PPP and PFI: it loads higher long-term debt costs onto public services and increases profits to commercial companies.

Any time the Scottish government is faced with a question of privatisation: Scottish Water’s retail service, rail franchises or Scottish ferries, it points to the EU and claims that it has no choice. 

At least Jeremy Corbyn stated in an interview for the Morning Star that he is “quite prepared to challenge EU competition law and EU directives on public ownership and state funding.” 

Any belief that the SNP has an economic outlook that would challenge the neoliberal underpinnings of the EU would be wrong. 

They may, quite rightly, rail against the Tories’ anti-austerity policies, but when it comes to Europe John Swinney is not so critical. 

He wrote in an article for the Sunday Herald in July 2015 that “Greece can’t simply be allowed to walk away from its obligations to creditors.”

So EU membership is to be a “red line” which could provoke another Scottish independence referendum. 

The SNP would uncritically sign over the Scottish economy to the undemocratic EU rather than work with individuals and parties within Britain to challenge the EU as an organisation whose very purpose is to impose neoliberal economic policies on its member countries.