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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
I am keeping my promise to provide information on the Brexit campaign and I note the final applications to vote in the referendum is tonight.
It's now possible that this weekend will see Steve do the final backup of the site to send to SFU. Should this actually go through then I'll be suspending publishing until I can publish to the SFU.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page...
200 year-old golf course to return to original layout
Founded in 1817, Scotscraig Golf Club, near Tayport, Fife, is the world’s 13th oldest golf club
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/200-yea...yout-1-4150353
New chief scientific adviser for Scotland is appointed
Scotland's new chief scientific advisor Professor Sheila Rowan
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/new-chi...nted-1-4149379
Royal Highland Fusiliers march through Ayr
They recently arrived back from operations in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where they were helping train local army units.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36479933
John Swinney may need targeted early intervention
By Kenneth Roy from the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy56a.html
First fairytale festival to be held in Selkirk
A festival of fairytales, inspired by the books of Andrew Lang, is to be held in his Borders birthplace.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...tland-36468084
Glasgow-built space technology a success
The European Space Agency has said its Lisa Pathfinder mission is performing better than expected.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36468920
The exam factory: Scotland's disastrous new testing regime
Of all the poor thinking in this country, the compulsory examination of five-year-olds is surely the most depressing.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy53a.html
Interview with the man in charge of the Liam Fee inquiry
By Kenneth Roy of the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy55a.html
Would Scotland's fishermen be better in or out?
"I have not met a local fisherman yet who would not pack his bags and leave the EU."
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...tland-35639733
Ayrshire brothers' invention to transform America's railways
A machine to lay rail track, invented and patented by two brothers from Ayrshire, is set to revolutionise the job in America.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36459486
New tidal turbines in Forth set to revolutionise energy sector
A pioneering new green power device is set to be launched in the Firth of Forth this week
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/new-tid...ctor-1-4146158
When will the SNP take education seriously?
Depressing figures reveal that the gap between disadvantaged and more affluent pupils is growing
Read more at:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...tion-seriously
Serbian boys remembered in Edinburgh
This week their descendants will travel to the capital to remember them.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...-fife-36427754
Edinburgh Military Tattoo’s Australian tour sets new record
And has been viewed almost 2.5 million times.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/edinbur...cord-1-4131681
Electric Canadian
Murdo McIvar
A mainstay of the Gaelic Society of Vancouver, a memorial, which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/mcivar_murdo.htm
The Young Emigrants
Pictures of Canada calculated to amuse and instruct the minds of youth (pdf) which you can download from http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...gemigrants.pdf
Female Emigrant's Guide
By Mrs C. P. Traill (1854)
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/guide.htm
The Trail of Love
An Appreciation of Canadian Pioneers and Pioneer Life BY W. D. Flatt (1916)
You can download this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...railoflove.pdf
Electric Scotland
James Ballantyne Hannay
Added this chemist, who first created artificial diamonds, to our Significant Scots at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nnay_james.htm
Life in Inverness in The Sixteenth Century
By William Mackay (1911)
This is a short 59 page book which provides an excellent overview of Inverness at this time period.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ninverness.pdf
Grierson
Got in a 5 page scan of information on the Grierson's of Cambusbarron which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...n/grierson.htm
Cluny MacPherson
By Emelia E. Barr, A novel.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/cluny.pdf
Logie, A Parish History
By R. Menzies Fergusson (1905) in 2 volumes.
THE Parish of Logie, lying under the shadow of Stirling Castle, once the royal residence of the Scottish Kings, and containing within its bounds the western spurs of the Ochil range, dominated by the lordly peak of Dunmyat and the well-known Abbey Craig, on whose summit the national monument to Sir William Wallace now stands, is exceedingly rich in historical associations. Upon its southern border the ruined tower of Cambuskenneth Abbey raises its hoary head, and looks like a dreaming sentinel of the plain, through which the winding Forth pursues its devious way. Its history is extremely interesting, and there are many incidents relating to places and persons of more than local importance. The purpose of the present work is to give a full and accurate account of both the Ecclesiastical and Civil History of the Parish, drawn from historical and original documents, many of which have not hitherto been published.
I've added links to the 2 volumes to the foot of our Stirlingshire page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/stirlingshire/
Memoir of Alexander McLeod, D.D.
By Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D. A Scottish Presbyterian minister in America. You can read this book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ndermcleod.pdf
Flora MacDonald
Added two books about her to the foot of her page. The second book is about her life in Uist. You can get to these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/women/wih9.htm
The books are:
The Life of Flora MacDonald
By The Rev. Alexander MacGregor, M.A. (1901) (pdf)
Flora MacDonald in Uist
By William Jolly, F.R.S.E, F.G.S (1886)
And I've added links to them at the foot of her page.
Richard McNemar
A Sketch of his life which I've added to our Scots-Irish page. Also added a book by him on the Kentucky Revival where Shakerism came into being and you can get to these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ar_richard.htm
Isabella MacPherson
A Devoted Life by John MacPherson (pdf)
ONE day, early in this century, an old man was standing at his cottage door in Smithtown of Culloden — a picturesque hamlet, situated not far from the famous battlefield where the career of the Stuarts came to a close. The village patriarch, John Macpherson, was watching a band of sportsmen, who, with a pack of hounds, were in full pursuit of a hare. Suddenly doubling, the hapless victim of the sport sprang over the fence into Macpherson's garden; and thence, in sheer desperation, bounded through an open casement into a room, where, trembling and bleeding, it cowered in a corner. The old man shut the window, and awaited the arrival of the sportsmen.
"The hare is in the garden," said the lordly master of the hunt. "No; she is in the house," replied Macpherson, pointing to the window.
"Out with her!" shouted half a dozen voices. "Never!" was the old Highlander's reply, as he drew himself up proudly, "The hare has sought hospitality under my roof; and, in God's name, hospitality she shall have! Your Maker and my Maker is her Maker also; and never shall I turn one of God's helpless creatures in the hour of trouble to the door."
Knowing the character of the man, the leader of the party ordered a retreat. When men and dogs had disappeared, the kind-hearted host took the timid guest in his hands, and gently carrying her to the neighbouring forest, set her free.
You can download this book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...macpherson.pdf
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Teaching Robert Burns Online by Ronnie Young BA (Hons), MA, PhD, Glasgow University
Burns recently took place at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies. This is our third article on the project and shows the importance of such an undertaking. Dr. Ronnie Young agreed to write an article about his efforts, and we are happy to provide it to you, our readers. There is something magical about the number 7,500 but it became more so when that number actually signed up for the Burns course. My undergraduate school, Furman University, has 2,800 students and has been in the business of educating our young adults since 1826. Within only a few weeks of online notice, the university leaders organizing the course revealed not only the power of the internet but the power of Robert Burns in the world today.
As mentioned above, there are two articles on Robert Burns Lives! explaining this phenomenon for those who might have missed them. You can find these in Chapters 229 (“A Free Online Course on Burns”) and 233, an article written by Professor Gerard Carruthers entitled “The Centre for Robert Burns Studies” which is a follow-up to the first article. I cannot begin to thank the staff at the Burns Centre enough for all the hard work they have put in bringing Robert Burns to the people around the globe who signed up for the course. What fun! (FRS: 6.8.16)
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives238.htm
Memoir of Alexander McLeod, D.D.
By Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D.
A Scottish Presbyterian minister in America which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ndermcleod.pdf
THE STORY
This is an article from the Scotsman and shows the wider discontent throughout Europe with the EU. As the vote is now not far off I thought this story may bring better context to the arguments.
THE vote on 23 June will not end a debate that is only going to gather pace, argues Bill Jamieson
Can’t wait for 24 June and the EU referendum battle to be over? Join the masses bored to tears with it all – the dodgy statistics, the apocalyptic warnings and the slogan-swapping.
Is there any shroud left to wave? Any scary siren not sounded at full volume? An Armageddon not luridly portrayed? This week’s much-hyped “head-on TV debate clash” (really?) with Nigel Farage and David Cameron yielded nothing that we have not already heard a hundred times – and then duly repeated in post-match analysis by a legion of analysts, pundits and soothsayers.
But will it be all over on 24 June? Across the continent there is an evident and growing disenchantment with the institutions of the EU, their reach and ambitions.
Analysis by the respected American think-tank the Pew Research Centre records a marked drop in support for the EU across seven major European countries.
Over 60 per cent of French voters now have an unfavourable view of the EU, while almost half the electorate in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have also become Eurosceptic.
In 2004, 69 per cent of French voters and 58 per cent of German voters backed the EU – while not a single country reported a net negative rating. But today opposition to the EU now runs at 60 per cent in France, 71 per cent in Greece, both higher than the 48 per cent opposition in the UK.
Says Professor Jeffry Frieden of Harvard University’s department of government: “Back ten years ago, trust in national governments and the EU institutions was 60 per cent, 65 per cent, 70 per cent. Now it’s 10-15 per cent who have any faith.”
Eurosceptic sentiment has been fuelled by the region’s struggle to stage a credible recovery from the global financial crash and subsequent recession and by persistently high unemployment (running at 10 per cent across the EU, with jobless totals in Greece at 25 per cent and in Spain at 20 per cent).
Now mass immigration from the Middle East and North Africa has further soured the mood. And across member states there is an evident concern over the growing dominance of Germany.
The Pew study highlights the huge task faced by Brussels in restoring confidence in the EU. All this may seem to favour the Leave camp – that it is in tune with the mood across the continent. But it may also provide some assurance that, for all the EU’s declarations for “ever closer union”, that is just not going to happen: an ambition set to be thwarted by national parliaments under growing political pressure from populist parties.
The Pew research also reveals that not a single European country wants more powers to be handed to the EU while a growing number of voters want powers repatriated.
Roughly two-thirds of Greeks (68 per cent) and British (65 per cent) want some EU power returned to Athens and London. Pluralities in Sweden (47 per cent), the Netherlands (44 per cent), Germany (43 per cent) and Italy (39 per cent) also want to curtail EU power.
While voters in most other European countries do not want Britain to vote for Brexit, some 32 per cent of French voters believe a British departure would be a good thing for the EU.
How real is the challenge posed by populist Eurosceptic parties and how likely is this to dominate news coverage in the period ahead?
Spain is ranked the second most distrustful of the EU, making it one of the three most Eurosceptic countries in the EU. Poll findings suggest that some 72 per cent of the Spanish people do not trust it.
In Austria, Norbert Hofer, candidate of the Eurosceptic Freedom Party, came within a whisker of winning last month’s presidential election run-off. The EU establishment heaved a sigh of relief. But looking at the in-tide of Eurosceptic opinion elsewhere, this may be short-lived.
In France, a founding member of the EU, Marine Le Pen’s Front National party won European Parliament elections two years ago and a recent poll had 80 per cent of respondents saying they think she’ll make it to the second round of France’s 2017 presidential election. Says Hubert Vedrine, a former French foreign minister: “I am a firm believer in the EU, but I think that the elites’ traditional sermons no longer work. They even infuriate people and are counter-productive.”
Across Scandinavia populist parties advocating national interests over EU authority are either in power or strongly represented in parliament.
Germany’s AfD party, whose views clash with key EU principles, recently scored strongly in three state parliament elections.
In the Netherlands – another founding member of the EU – Geert Wilders, whose Freedom party has held a commanding lead in national polls for months, said last month: “The beginning of the end of the EU has already started. And it can be an enormous incentive for other countries if the UK would leave.”
Hungary and Poland are already governed by Eurosceptic parties. Warsaw has been pressing for more devolution of power to national parliaments, while Hungary’s president Victor Orban has been a vehement critic of the EU.
In Denmark, which voted last December against adopting EU justice and home affairs policies, leaders of the Danish People’s Party, according to an authoritative Financial Times report earlier this week, now talk openly about their own ambitions to renegotiate the country’s terms of membership.
The party came top of the poll in the country’s 2014 EU elections. Danish MEP Morten Messerschmidt insists he does not favour withdrawal “but we want to have a new deal with the EU. We are happy that a big country such as Britain is talking about taking back sovereignty and is willing to make the final sacrifice.” Denmark is the EU country which most closely mirrors the UK in its attitudes to the EU and is the only other EU country with an opt-out of the EU requirement to join the euro.
Given all this, little wonder that Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, recently admitted he was “really afraid” the UK referendum would prove “a very attractive model for some politicians in Europe to achieve some internal, very egotistical goals”.
And José Manuel Barroso, the former European Commission president, warns that Brexit could lead to an EU unravelling. In the event of a UK Brexit vote, he posits a Franco-German led group of “core countries” announcing an immediate initiative for deeper integration.
This would be intended to signal to the world — and to wavering EU countries — that Britain was an outlier and that remaining EU members were committed to pulling together at an even faster pace. But there is no certainty whatever that national parliaments, with their hold on power threatened by populist Eurosceptic parties, would go along with this.
So: all over on 24 June, an end to the rammy over the benefits of the EU and all peace and reconciliation in Brussels? Hardly. Across the continent, this is a project fighting for its life.
END
See also http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/efta.htm as this paper explains how EFTA/EEA would be a much better option than the EU and is not being discussed during this referendum period.
The SNP-EU situation article can be viewed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/snp-eu.htm
Some thoughts on why we shouldn't be in the EU
http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/EUnot.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
I am keeping my promise to provide information on the Brexit campaign and I note the final applications to vote in the referendum is tonight.
It's now possible that this weekend will see Steve do the final backup of the site to send to SFU. Should this actually go through then I'll be suspending publishing until I can publish to the SFU.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page...
200 year-old golf course to return to original layout
Founded in 1817, Scotscraig Golf Club, near Tayport, Fife, is the world’s 13th oldest golf club
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/200-yea...yout-1-4150353
New chief scientific adviser for Scotland is appointed
Scotland's new chief scientific advisor Professor Sheila Rowan
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/new-chi...nted-1-4149379
Royal Highland Fusiliers march through Ayr
They recently arrived back from operations in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where they were helping train local army units.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36479933
John Swinney may need targeted early intervention
By Kenneth Roy from the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy56a.html
First fairytale festival to be held in Selkirk
A festival of fairytales, inspired by the books of Andrew Lang, is to be held in his Borders birthplace.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...tland-36468084
Glasgow-built space technology a success
The European Space Agency has said its Lisa Pathfinder mission is performing better than expected.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36468920
The exam factory: Scotland's disastrous new testing regime
Of all the poor thinking in this country, the compulsory examination of five-year-olds is surely the most depressing.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy53a.html
Interview with the man in charge of the Liam Fee inquiry
By Kenneth Roy of the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/KennethRoy55a.html
Would Scotland's fishermen be better in or out?
"I have not met a local fisherman yet who would not pack his bags and leave the EU."
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...tland-35639733
Ayrshire brothers' invention to transform America's railways
A machine to lay rail track, invented and patented by two brothers from Ayrshire, is set to revolutionise the job in America.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36459486
New tidal turbines in Forth set to revolutionise energy sector
A pioneering new green power device is set to be launched in the Firth of Forth this week
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/new-tid...ctor-1-4146158
When will the SNP take education seriously?
Depressing figures reveal that the gap between disadvantaged and more affluent pupils is growing
Read more at:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...tion-seriously
Serbian boys remembered in Edinburgh
This week their descendants will travel to the capital to remember them.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...-fife-36427754
Edinburgh Military Tattoo’s Australian tour sets new record
And has been viewed almost 2.5 million times.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/edinbur...cord-1-4131681
Electric Canadian
Murdo McIvar
A mainstay of the Gaelic Society of Vancouver, a memorial, which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/mcivar_murdo.htm
The Young Emigrants
Pictures of Canada calculated to amuse and instruct the minds of youth (pdf) which you can download from http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...gemigrants.pdf
Female Emigrant's Guide
By Mrs C. P. Traill (1854)
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/guide.htm
The Trail of Love
An Appreciation of Canadian Pioneers and Pioneer Life BY W. D. Flatt (1916)
You can download this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...railoflove.pdf
Electric Scotland
James Ballantyne Hannay
Added this chemist, who first created artificial diamonds, to our Significant Scots at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nnay_james.htm
Life in Inverness in The Sixteenth Century
By William Mackay (1911)
This is a short 59 page book which provides an excellent overview of Inverness at this time period.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ninverness.pdf
Grierson
Got in a 5 page scan of information on the Grierson's of Cambusbarron which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...n/grierson.htm
Cluny MacPherson
By Emelia E. Barr, A novel.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/cluny.pdf
Logie, A Parish History
By R. Menzies Fergusson (1905) in 2 volumes.
THE Parish of Logie, lying under the shadow of Stirling Castle, once the royal residence of the Scottish Kings, and containing within its bounds the western spurs of the Ochil range, dominated by the lordly peak of Dunmyat and the well-known Abbey Craig, on whose summit the national monument to Sir William Wallace now stands, is exceedingly rich in historical associations. Upon its southern border the ruined tower of Cambuskenneth Abbey raises its hoary head, and looks like a dreaming sentinel of the plain, through which the winding Forth pursues its devious way. Its history is extremely interesting, and there are many incidents relating to places and persons of more than local importance. The purpose of the present work is to give a full and accurate account of both the Ecclesiastical and Civil History of the Parish, drawn from historical and original documents, many of which have not hitherto been published.
I've added links to the 2 volumes to the foot of our Stirlingshire page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/stirlingshire/
Memoir of Alexander McLeod, D.D.
By Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D. A Scottish Presbyterian minister in America. You can read this book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ndermcleod.pdf
Flora MacDonald
Added two books about her to the foot of her page. The second book is about her life in Uist. You can get to these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/women/wih9.htm
The books are:
The Life of Flora MacDonald
By The Rev. Alexander MacGregor, M.A. (1901) (pdf)
Flora MacDonald in Uist
By William Jolly, F.R.S.E, F.G.S (1886)
And I've added links to them at the foot of her page.
Richard McNemar
A Sketch of his life which I've added to our Scots-Irish page. Also added a book by him on the Kentucky Revival where Shakerism came into being and you can get to these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ar_richard.htm
Isabella MacPherson
A Devoted Life by John MacPherson (pdf)
ONE day, early in this century, an old man was standing at his cottage door in Smithtown of Culloden — a picturesque hamlet, situated not far from the famous battlefield where the career of the Stuarts came to a close. The village patriarch, John Macpherson, was watching a band of sportsmen, who, with a pack of hounds, were in full pursuit of a hare. Suddenly doubling, the hapless victim of the sport sprang over the fence into Macpherson's garden; and thence, in sheer desperation, bounded through an open casement into a room, where, trembling and bleeding, it cowered in a corner. The old man shut the window, and awaited the arrival of the sportsmen.
"The hare is in the garden," said the lordly master of the hunt. "No; she is in the house," replied Macpherson, pointing to the window.
"Out with her!" shouted half a dozen voices. "Never!" was the old Highlander's reply, as he drew himself up proudly, "The hare has sought hospitality under my roof; and, in God's name, hospitality she shall have! Your Maker and my Maker is her Maker also; and never shall I turn one of God's helpless creatures in the hour of trouble to the door."
Knowing the character of the man, the leader of the party ordered a retreat. When men and dogs had disappeared, the kind-hearted host took the timid guest in his hands, and gently carrying her to the neighbouring forest, set her free.
You can download this book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...macpherson.pdf
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Teaching Robert Burns Online by Ronnie Young BA (Hons), MA, PhD, Glasgow University
Burns recently took place at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies. This is our third article on the project and shows the importance of such an undertaking. Dr. Ronnie Young agreed to write an article about his efforts, and we are happy to provide it to you, our readers. There is something magical about the number 7,500 but it became more so when that number actually signed up for the Burns course. My undergraduate school, Furman University, has 2,800 students and has been in the business of educating our young adults since 1826. Within only a few weeks of online notice, the university leaders organizing the course revealed not only the power of the internet but the power of Robert Burns in the world today.
As mentioned above, there are two articles on Robert Burns Lives! explaining this phenomenon for those who might have missed them. You can find these in Chapters 229 (“A Free Online Course on Burns”) and 233, an article written by Professor Gerard Carruthers entitled “The Centre for Robert Burns Studies” which is a follow-up to the first article. I cannot begin to thank the staff at the Burns Centre enough for all the hard work they have put in bringing Robert Burns to the people around the globe who signed up for the course. What fun! (FRS: 6.8.16)
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives238.htm
Memoir of Alexander McLeod, D.D.
By Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D.
A Scottish Presbyterian minister in America which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ndermcleod.pdf
THE STORY
This is an article from the Scotsman and shows the wider discontent throughout Europe with the EU. As the vote is now not far off I thought this story may bring better context to the arguments.
THE vote on 23 June will not end a debate that is only going to gather pace, argues Bill Jamieson
Can’t wait for 24 June and the EU referendum battle to be over? Join the masses bored to tears with it all – the dodgy statistics, the apocalyptic warnings and the slogan-swapping.
Is there any shroud left to wave? Any scary siren not sounded at full volume? An Armageddon not luridly portrayed? This week’s much-hyped “head-on TV debate clash” (really?) with Nigel Farage and David Cameron yielded nothing that we have not already heard a hundred times – and then duly repeated in post-match analysis by a legion of analysts, pundits and soothsayers.
But will it be all over on 24 June? Across the continent there is an evident and growing disenchantment with the institutions of the EU, their reach and ambitions.
Analysis by the respected American think-tank the Pew Research Centre records a marked drop in support for the EU across seven major European countries.
Over 60 per cent of French voters now have an unfavourable view of the EU, while almost half the electorate in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have also become Eurosceptic.
In 2004, 69 per cent of French voters and 58 per cent of German voters backed the EU – while not a single country reported a net negative rating. But today opposition to the EU now runs at 60 per cent in France, 71 per cent in Greece, both higher than the 48 per cent opposition in the UK.
Says Professor Jeffry Frieden of Harvard University’s department of government: “Back ten years ago, trust in national governments and the EU institutions was 60 per cent, 65 per cent, 70 per cent. Now it’s 10-15 per cent who have any faith.”
Eurosceptic sentiment has been fuelled by the region’s struggle to stage a credible recovery from the global financial crash and subsequent recession and by persistently high unemployment (running at 10 per cent across the EU, with jobless totals in Greece at 25 per cent and in Spain at 20 per cent).
Now mass immigration from the Middle East and North Africa has further soured the mood. And across member states there is an evident concern over the growing dominance of Germany.
The Pew study highlights the huge task faced by Brussels in restoring confidence in the EU. All this may seem to favour the Leave camp – that it is in tune with the mood across the continent. But it may also provide some assurance that, for all the EU’s declarations for “ever closer union”, that is just not going to happen: an ambition set to be thwarted by national parliaments under growing political pressure from populist parties.
The Pew research also reveals that not a single European country wants more powers to be handed to the EU while a growing number of voters want powers repatriated.
Roughly two-thirds of Greeks (68 per cent) and British (65 per cent) want some EU power returned to Athens and London. Pluralities in Sweden (47 per cent), the Netherlands (44 per cent), Germany (43 per cent) and Italy (39 per cent) also want to curtail EU power.
While voters in most other European countries do not want Britain to vote for Brexit, some 32 per cent of French voters believe a British departure would be a good thing for the EU.
How real is the challenge posed by populist Eurosceptic parties and how likely is this to dominate news coverage in the period ahead?
Spain is ranked the second most distrustful of the EU, making it one of the three most Eurosceptic countries in the EU. Poll findings suggest that some 72 per cent of the Spanish people do not trust it.
In Austria, Norbert Hofer, candidate of the Eurosceptic Freedom Party, came within a whisker of winning last month’s presidential election run-off. The EU establishment heaved a sigh of relief. But looking at the in-tide of Eurosceptic opinion elsewhere, this may be short-lived.
In France, a founding member of the EU, Marine Le Pen’s Front National party won European Parliament elections two years ago and a recent poll had 80 per cent of respondents saying they think she’ll make it to the second round of France’s 2017 presidential election. Says Hubert Vedrine, a former French foreign minister: “I am a firm believer in the EU, but I think that the elites’ traditional sermons no longer work. They even infuriate people and are counter-productive.”
Across Scandinavia populist parties advocating national interests over EU authority are either in power or strongly represented in parliament.
Germany’s AfD party, whose views clash with key EU principles, recently scored strongly in three state parliament elections.
In the Netherlands – another founding member of the EU – Geert Wilders, whose Freedom party has held a commanding lead in national polls for months, said last month: “The beginning of the end of the EU has already started. And it can be an enormous incentive for other countries if the UK would leave.”
Hungary and Poland are already governed by Eurosceptic parties. Warsaw has been pressing for more devolution of power to national parliaments, while Hungary’s president Victor Orban has been a vehement critic of the EU.
In Denmark, which voted last December against adopting EU justice and home affairs policies, leaders of the Danish People’s Party, according to an authoritative Financial Times report earlier this week, now talk openly about their own ambitions to renegotiate the country’s terms of membership.
The party came top of the poll in the country’s 2014 EU elections. Danish MEP Morten Messerschmidt insists he does not favour withdrawal “but we want to have a new deal with the EU. We are happy that a big country such as Britain is talking about taking back sovereignty and is willing to make the final sacrifice.” Denmark is the EU country which most closely mirrors the UK in its attitudes to the EU and is the only other EU country with an opt-out of the EU requirement to join the euro.
Given all this, little wonder that Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, recently admitted he was “really afraid” the UK referendum would prove “a very attractive model for some politicians in Europe to achieve some internal, very egotistical goals”.
And José Manuel Barroso, the former European Commission president, warns that Brexit could lead to an EU unravelling. In the event of a UK Brexit vote, he posits a Franco-German led group of “core countries” announcing an immediate initiative for deeper integration.
This would be intended to signal to the world — and to wavering EU countries — that Britain was an outlier and that remaining EU members were committed to pulling together at an even faster pace. But there is no certainty whatever that national parliaments, with their hold on power threatened by populist Eurosceptic parties, would go along with this.
So: all over on 24 June, an end to the rammy over the benefits of the EU and all peace and reconciliation in Brussels? Hardly. Across the continent, this is a project fighting for its life.
END
See also http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/efta.htm as this paper explains how EFTA/EEA would be a much better option than the EU and is not being discussed during this referendum period.
The SNP-EU situation article can be viewed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/snp-eu.htm
Some thoughts on why we shouldn't be in the EU
http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/EUnot.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair