Meeting of the Parliament 28 June 2016
I—like most members, I expect—spent a lot of time at the weekend attending constituency events. Literally thousands of people attended those events, and everyone wanted to talk about the referendum. What struck me was that both those who voted remain and those who voted leave are now extremely anxious about their future, their children’s future and the future of Scotland.
I have been inundated with emails and letters over the past few days, as I am sure that many other members have been. A lady from near Forres contacted me last night by email. She said:
“I have two daughters aged two and four—what kind of country are they going to grow up in? I am truly fearful for their future.”
The one thing that all those people had in common was that they were absolutely keen for all their politicians in this Parliament and in Scotland to show leadership in these difficult times, especially given the vacuum at the UK level that we are witnessing.
That is why today’s debate is so important. We must now deal with what may turn out to be the biggest event so far in our lifetimes and in post-war Europe. There have, of course, been other seminal events since the war, such as the fall of the Berlin wall, which was all about solidarity. Eastern European countries queued up to join the EU and we all welcomed them with open arms, yet the UK has now chosen isolation over co-operation and has damaged European unity.
As Patrick Harvie said, the referendum result has been welcomed by some of the most extremist voices in Europe: people who hope to put forward extremist agendas based on scapegoating minorities and others, blaming them for Europe’s current woes. We must hope that the UK’s decision does not have a domino effect as the reverberations of Brexit are felt across the whole of Europe.
By working together in this Parliament and across civic Scotland to secure our nation’s place in Europe, we can send out a message of hope and optimism to Europe’s peoples—a message that Scotland wants to be an outward-looking, modern European country, where we embrace rather than reject differences. We are not going to run away from Europe’s tough challenges.
I urge all parties in the chamber to focus on the outcome that we all profess to want, which is to stay in Europe, in line with the democratic wishes that were expressed by the people last Thursday. Yes, we need time to consider all the options and to hear the views of all parties. I hear suggestions that we can remain part of a UK that is largely out of Europe while we in Scotland, and perhaps other parts of the UK, remain in the EU. I very much look forward to hearing the details of how that could work in practice without leading to a political and democratic mess or blank cheques for constitutional and commercial lawyers for the rest of time.
As a Parliament, we need to be careful to listen to all views within and outwith the Parliament. The First Minister is absolutely correct to say that a second independence referendum must be on the table. Many people who voted no in 2014 are now saying that enough is enough. The reference points in the independence debate have been radically altered. Many no voters are saying that, if there is a choice between remaining in an isolated UK out of Europe, when we voted to remain, and being governed by right-wing Conservatives whom we did not vote for either, they will vote differently next time. They deserve to have their voice heard.