The Sunday Herald EU Big Debate This week: the final pitch to readers

As a representative of a national student organisation and also a mum of four, what drives me is what makes life better for us all - as citizens, families, members of the public. And that’s not necessarily the issues that have been the stuff of political argy-bargy over the last few weeks. In fact it’s everything from the jobs benefits of being in the single market to cheap package holidays. I love the ability I have as an EU citizen to travel easily, visa free and affordably, with the cheaper flights that EU action has helped deliver. Brexit risks no 'flight delay compensation', mobile roaming charges, and the loss of some travel consumer rights. These may not be the biggest issues in this referendum, but they matter to people and make the point that there are tangible benefits of being in Europe, rights we have built up as citizens, which we should not throw away on Thursday.

The Leave campaign argue that we should quit and just trade with Europe – that might be okay for big business and right-wing Brexiteers like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage who would just love to roll back the workers’ rights that are enshrined in the EU. But it would not be a Europe of rights for citizens in Scotland and the UK – people in the other 27 countries would continue to enjoy them, but we’d have given them up. And I’m passionate about that in the field of education.

Scotland has a world-class tertiary education system - our undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate studies attract applications internationally, and our institutions benefit from a socially, culturally and ideologically rich talent pool. This all makes for a much more progressive and diverse college or university experience - not only in terms of learning and teaching, or indeed research, but on a social level too with dynamic and intelligent student cohorts who have different and complimentary life experiences. Such a broad outlook challenges us and inspires us to be better than the sum of our parts.

Free movement to study and learn is something to protect, not only to further academic opportunities and enhance our knowledge economy, but to encourage a generation of global citizens and foster social cohesion.

Freedom of movement has given us diverse communities and campuses. It’s enabled younger generations to experience an educational journey alongside students and academics from all corners of the globe, expanding their cultural and social knowledge and understanding. It’s contributed to the creation of cohesive communities and a socially tolerant society. A Brexit would not just limit the diversity of our campuses, but risk reversing the currently outward-looking, international culture of our education system.

Students aren’t just concerned about the impact of a Brexit on our colleges and universities, but on the broader insularity that would ensue. My generation is connected to young people around the world more than ever before, with globalised networks, campaigning collectively on global issues. We don’t fear this diverse, international world. We fear isolation.

Scotland’s colleges and universities benefit greatly from being part of the European Union. The EU provides research funding to support collaborative projects between universities - something which has recently been highlighted by government as a major boon to our science and competitiveness - which is providing interesting and diverse opportunities for research and potentially for jobs.

That benefit in terms of diverse student recruitment to our institutions goes both ways of course, as students from Scotland and the rest of the UK have opportunities available to study through the Erasmus scheme, which is 29 years old and was created to support and enhance the belief that international mobility is good.

It’s good for the individual to expand their personal experiences and horizons. It’s good for society to have a better educated population with a wealth and depth of knowledge, with constantly developing and evolving beliefs and values. And it’s good for our economy too, at a time of continuing challenge, to be able to draw upon an expanded talent pool - both expanded in knowledge base, and an expanded recruitment base.

And what does this mean for Scotland? Beyond recruitment of a high-qualified, motivated, dynamic and diverse workforce, the EU Employment directives protect workers against discrimination on the basis of age, race, sexual orientation and more. It ensures women and men are treated equally at work, that pregnant women are considered and protected, and that maternity and parental leave is available. It ensures that employees have rights around their contracts, that they have time off between shifts, and a maximum number of hours in a working week, and that employees have the right to be consulted.

The EU is the UK’s biggest trading partner, and Scotland is a more export-oriented economy, so having full access to the singe market is vital for jobs.

And being part of the EU is the only buffer we have to protect students and communities across the UK from regressive Westminster policy. Funding from the European Social Fund promotes employment and social inclusion. It currently funds projects and work across the UK, making sure that disadvantaged groups have fairer life opportunities, including in every one of Scotland’s colleges.

For the complicated world that lies ahead, it makes absolutely no sense to look anything but outward.

The European Union grew out of a desire for peace in a war-torn and divided continent. Five years after World War II ended, France and Germany came up with a plan to ensure their two countries could never go to war against each other again. It was a noble initiative, and one which we should be proud of. Of course the EU has flaws and could be better – what couldn’t? So let’s take the best of the past and vote Remain for a better future.

OUT

by Tom Harris, Director of Scottish Vote Leave

The rival campaigns in this referendum have criticised each other for their selective use of statistics and facts. Such is life in a political campaign when the stakes are this high.

No one really believes the prediction of Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, that a vote by the UK to leave the EU will precipitate the downfall of western civilisation itself. And no doubt the Remain side are just as happy to dismiss any number of statements made by the Leave campaign.

Nevertheless, it’s a great pity that what has been termed “Project Fear 2” is now being embraced by all the main political parties including, disappointingly, the SNP.

I have some sympathy with the Remain camp. It’s hard, in a referendum, to defend the status quo. “Vote remain for more of the same” is hardly an inspiring slogan. They have nothing whatever to say on what has turned out to be the pivotal issue of the campaign: immigration. So turning negative was perhaps inevitable.

Did Remain have a choice?

No one knows for sure what Thursday’s result will be, but I’m willing to make at least one prediction: if the UK votes Leave, then every single person on the Remain campaign, every single member of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Scottish Parliament, the whole of civic society, local government and the third sector will offer their full, unequivocal support to our exit negotiations.

That it itself is an exciting prospect. And it would be a reassuring one to all those who have cast a vote to Remain and who are worried about the consequences of being in disagreement with the majority.

Just imagine the negotiating team batting for the UK: David Cameron, Nicola Sturgeon, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones, the Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster, the Remain campaign leaders Alan Johnson and Stuart Rose. And yes, Boris and Michael Gove would probably have a role to play too.

That’s quite a team who will face our soon-to-be former EU friends in negotiations.

That’s not to say they will cease to be our friends, of course. Sometimes the Remain camp talk as if international co-operation was founded by the EU and its predecessor organisations, and copyrighted by it for its exclusive use. Action on climate change has happened, not because of the EU, but because countries throughout the world worked in partnership to set emissions targets. We already work in close partnership with our allies in Nato and in the UN where, let us not forget, we still have a permanent seat on the Security Council.

They will also remain our friends for a peculiar, legalistic reason: the EU is obliged through the Lisbon Treaty to maintain friendly relations with its non-EU neighbours. In the space of a very few years, we may be in a position to be take advantage of that law.

Before then, what would our top team of negotiators be looking for? The first thing to point out is that there would be more than one set of negotiations taking place. There would be no reason at all to delay the start of talks with nations such as China, the US and India – among many others – on new bilateral trade deals, deals that we’ve been legally prevented from pursuing during our 43 years of EU membership.

We’ve been repeatedly told during this campaign that we won’t get a deal to trade with the EU, that we’ll be denied tariff-free access to the single market. Odd, isn’t it, that nations who we’re told love us and want us to stay would so quickly turn on us and try to undermine our economy – even at the expense of their own – just out of spite or petty revenge?

The truth is that our current EU partner nations are reasonable and will look after their own best interests, even if that means that we also benefit.

What if that argument fails (it won’t, by the way)? Non-EU countries already sell directly into the single market and pay a tariff of roughly three to four per cent of the value of the goods they’re selling. For the UK that would mean a cost of between four and five billion pounds a year. That sounds a lot, but given we already pay a net £10 billion a year for the “privilege” of EU membership, it would be a price literally worth paying.

Whichever solution is reached, the UK and Scotland will be materially better off.

Scotland will have its own bonus in the shape of new powers over fishing and agriculture, to be devolved to Holyrood “by default” on the day we leave the EU, according to former Scottish Government adviser, Professor Drew Scott. A revitalised, transformed Scottish fishing fleet will be a joy to behold, especially after so many decades of waste and demoralisation under the tyranny of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.

The Remain camp tries to paint those voting for Leave as extremists. The real extremists are those who say that borders can’t be controlled, who claim that trade can only be conducted under the auspices of an aspiring super state on our behalf, who claim that a net £10 billion a year at a time of austerity is a price worth paying for the “privileges” of EU membership.

Which is why I believe the moderate, sensible majority of our citizens will vote Leave on Thursday.