WHILE I can agree with Steve Arnott (Letters, Jan 7) that the matter of rejoining the EU should be a separate matter for after regaining independence, which should be our single focus right now, doesn’t the main thrust of his anti-EU viewpoint seem straight out of the Brexit campaign group’s propaganda machine?

Whilst Brexiteers have always relied on such spoon-fed nonsense, what interests me is the real personal view that invariably seems to be obscured by it – usually anything from personal financial circumstances through to outright xenophobia and worse.

I agree the EU is not a perfect organisation. By its nature it is a group of nations working together to create a level playing field and standards for all to work with equally. As such it operates across the board to staunch the wilder excesses of capitalism while affording a higher level of workers’ rights and protections – indisputable given how the British government only recently has declared its intent to reduce the right of workers to withdraw their labour.

READ MORE: Securing independence is the first step – EU discussions come later

Claiming the EU is not democratic is to entirely misunderstand the nature of the organisation; it being a group of nations, each allegedly “democratically” accountable, rather than a nation state in its own right (we should be more concerned about the anti-democratic British government currently denying Scots their fundamental democratic right to decide their independent nation status).

Of course the EU could be reformed to the US model, with direct federal government elections and local state government, which would resolve any democratic concerns of the anti-EU lobby(?); but wouldn’t they be the first to complain about that too, claiming loss of sovereignty was a price too high to pay?

For me, the EU membership argument – out or in – has been simplified by Brexit. We are now living with the direct consequences of being out: loss of inward investment, poorer trading deals, exporting trading difficulties, food shortages, labour shortages, travel more difficult, government-induced reduction of our living standards and rights, restricted education opportunities and the increased cost implications of all of these and more manifested by higher prices fuelling a crippling inflation rate and slashing the living standards of all of us – all while the British rich get richer and the rest of us poorer.

READ MORE: Putting the EU question on the back-burner could cost us independence

The EU had a calming effect on the wilder excesses and incompetence of British government. Now unfettered, the catastrophic return of the economic “British disease” of 50s to 70s Britain has returned for us all see and suffer first-hand. After 13 years of austerity, the necessary and predicted reset of pay levels in response to rampant inflation and higher costs of everything from food to housing is being resisted by the very hapless government that caused the problem in the first place; we’ve been taken back to the industrial strife of yesteryear, only this time even those key public-service workers who have traditionally agreed not to strike are now being forced to by draconian government intransigence. Sadly Labour’s alternative is more of the same.

Scotland’s model should not be those countries like Norway – which has thrived by squirrelling away its oil revenues (at consumers’ cost) – but rather Ireland, which has benefitted from enthusiastic membership and built a modern economy on our doorstep exporting throughout Europe from what was basically an agrarian economy selling most of its produce to Britain.

It is telling that Ireland is not clamouring to leave the EU. No-one is. Brexit demonstrated the failure of British economic and social mentality, not Europe’s.

However, indy first, and then let’s have the full debate based on facts and national interests, not personal preference.

Jim Taylor
Edinburgh