Lesley Riddoch: Ethnicity is no basis on which to choose who votes in the EU referendum

For English voters it’s the first since 1975 – for Scots, the second referendum in almost as many years. So are the two similar? Are they heck.

Of course, the indyref and EU referendum both tackle big constitutional questions about leaving or staying in a larger political union. But there the similarities end. Firstly, there’s the vexing question of who can vote. In 2014, all those over 16 and resident in Scotland were on the electoral register, irrespective of birthplace. So EU nationals living here helped decide if Scotland should become an independent country, while born and bred Scots living elsewhere did not.

That single, glorious fact was one reason the indyref did not become ethnically divisive despite the predictions. Indeed as the French-born MSP for the North East of Scotland, Christian Allard, has pointed out, the generosity of the Scottish franchise was one reason incomers like himself felt free to contribute to Scotland’s public life. EU nationals have been able to vote in the game-changing Scottish election of 2011, council elections in 2012, and European elections in 2013, and 90,000 registered to vote in the 2014 referendum.

The first time this group discovered they had been shut out of voting in Scotland was at the General Election. Poles, Romanians, French, Swedes, Spaniards, Italians, Germans and other Scots-based EU nationals could see their names on the electoral register but couldn’t vote. Why? Because the election was held on Westminster’s terms, not Scotland’s. The next lock-out will be the EU referendum – arguably even more relevant for UK-based European citizens.

The message is clear. Scotland takes an inclusive attitude towards citizenship putting the decision to bide above the accident of birth – powerful though upbringing always will be in terms of personal identity. The UK Government, however, thinks otherwise. Ironically – given David Cameron’s suggestion that independence campaigners were somehow anti-English – it is he who has shamefully introduced ethnicity as the basis to vote in a referendum on the future of Britain.

About 100,000 16 and 17-year-olds will also be outside the EU referendum – able to work, pay taxes, marry, and vote on Scottish independence but unable to decide whether Britain should resume splendid isolation or engage wholeheartedly at last with the European project.

Most Scots expect little better from David Cameron but though the Labour Party will argue for the inclusion of 16 and 17-year-olds it won’t challenge the exclusion of resident EU nationals – presumably too scared of antagonising Ukip voters to stand up for the broadest, most inclusive franchise that could be offered.

Of course Labour and the Tories say they are simply using the same register and therefore the same criteria as the Westminster elections. Nice. After an election that saw a party with 37 per cent of the vote win 100 per cent of the political power, the Westminster system is still viewed by London-based parties and commentators as the only viable template for any new test of public opinion.

However, their explanation isn’t quite accurate. UK-based Commonwealth citizens of Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar have been added to the Westminster voting register along with the unelected peers of the House of Lords – an institution Scots voted overwhelmingly to abolish when they elected 56 SNP MPs. So David Cameron can bend the rules for the barons, lords and ladies – but not for tax-paying incomers who have opted to make Britain their home.

The SNP also stood on the platform of opposing an EU Brexit. Of course that clear mandate will not carry any legislative force because nations have only prescribed powers within the state of Britain. Foreign affairs are reserved to Westminster and last year Scots voted to keep things that way. However, David Cameron has acknowledged the massive endorsement of the SNP means he must offer more extensive powers to Holyrood.

In the spirit of that deal he must also accept that the prospect of five million Scots being brought out of the EU against their will looks as undemocratic here as five million Scots vetoing the desires of the rest of the UK may appear in London.

The other big difference between the Indyref and EU referendum is that no major political party looks set to back one of the two options. David Cameron is sounding tough for the benefit of Tory Europhobes and Ukip voters but he knows big business wants Britain to stay. So come the Euro vote, it’s almost certain he will declare the broken European project reformed by his own heroic efforts and will urge Brits to stay. So will all the rest. So the Out vote will be formally backed by one Ukip MP, Tory backbenchers and the Daily Mail.

By contrast most Scottish MSPs and 45 per cent of the electorate backed the Yes vote in the indyref. Beware false comparison between the two referendums, there are none yet.