A simple man of quite un-extraordinary talent, Glasgow University Principal Anton Muscatelli, Nicola Sturgeon's EU adviser warns of "pretty catastrophic" Brexit, Scotland reels as Anton makes statements of the bleeding obvious, the wisdom of Scots hasn't been pushed forward, a trip to the library or the pub could get you the same wisdom, and at least at the pub you could get smashed and talk about the footie!

Dear All

Sometimes when you give an idiot a title, they think they know everything, today; I would like to focus on the rubbish spout by Anton Muscatelli. You may not be familiar with him but this character is Principal of the University of Glasgow. One of the phoney jobs he has is the chair of the First Minister’s standing council on Europe.

The SNP policy during Brexit was to remain, that didn’t work out as Nicola Sturgeon backed the wrong horse, then after she stopped squeaking, her next tactic was to demand separate access to the single market.

Why is this important, because the single market means that Scotland would be operating a different policy from the rest of the Uk and this would also mean Scotland would be allowed to continue to have freedom of movement. This policy by the SNP would also mean a hard border would have to be established within the UK.

Westminster rightly rejected that idea totally.

One of the funny developments in recent days is the idea floated that Nicola Sturgeon would have a seat at the Brexit talks, which is just fantasy, the UK Government will not have her on their team, questions of trust arise. As we also know, the SNP isn’t very good at working with others which completely in my opinion puts the notion of getting access to Brexit talks beyond her.

Nicola Sturgeon will not be allowed to go grandstanding, relegated to the sidelines; she will just be an interested spectator.

So, lets to Muscatelli, and his ‘wisdom’ he says at a breakfast meeting, presumably while scoffing his English breakfast that a quick trade deal with the EU was “complete fantasy”.

Well done Anton, that stint in education has certainly served you well, but statements of the bleeding obvious don’t count as wisdom. Here is some other wisdom, if you stick your hand in a fire it will get burnt, I don’t see anyone inviting me to a breakfast to pass on this gem but I thought I would throw it out there.

Another gem is use a rubber while having sex or you might get someone up the duff, really I could do this type of Muscatelli wisdom all day!

As to his claim of Brexit will be “pretty catastrophic” impact on the UK unless the free movement of people continues for several years, the UK will survive, there will be immigration, but there won’t be open borders. It will be for the country to decide who to let him, and legislation already exists to get skilled workers in. What needs to end is the influx of low skilled workers displacing working class people from jobs; this is dangerous for society, in many ways.

Muscatelli has no worries with money, or having a place to stay, he makes a packet, in ye olde days of my time at Glasgow University, the Principal also had an on call chauffeur to cart his arse about, it was flashy expensive car. And of course, in ye olde days, Musctaelli wasn’t living in the slums or deprived areas of Glasgow, he lived of the Switchback Road in Sunny Bearsden. Plus as Principal he also got cut rate sports facilities to use.

Perhaps Anton Muscatelli could speak to this aspect of freedom of movement which sees working class people displaced from job opportunities.

He and other experts had a “duty” to point out the flaws in a hard Brexit that would take the UK out the EU single market according to him.  Maybe he can point out the flaws of the UK allowing itself to be screwed by the EU, since ‘duty’ seems to be to at the forefront of his mind.

So, what I take from Muscatelli’s waffling is a single word, transition, it is bleeding obvious that there will be a transition as a new system comes online but equally there will be a cut off date. People of the UK can still go to Europe, and many of the scare stories are just that to frighten people.

Ask yourself how many people in the UK benefit from freedom of movement, if this is as Muscatelli says so important, what are the numbers, the bulk of the population aren’t involved in freedom of movement anyway. Freedom of movements only helps the rich suppress wages and conditions for workers.

If talks take longer than two years…… who cares; the direction of travel is the important issue, not steering and parking in cul de sac to satisfy someone’s whims. The most important issue of Brexit is sovereignty and the return of control to Westminster so that we the people have the right to choose who governs us and when necessary removed them via the ballot box.

Democracy in the EU is a joke, and not a funny one, the diktats of imposing migrant quotas coming out of Berlin and Brussels sees other countries rail against this; attacks on sovereignty by stealth are equally as bad as any other form of oppression.

One thing which I agree on is when Tom Harris who led the Brexit campaign in Scotland Brexit would force politicians to “put their money where their mouth is” and train people properly for jobs rather than rely on EU migrants. Bring in people from outside destroys internal social cohesion because it alienates those affect who are marginalised. Any country must invest in its own people rather than taking the cheap option of importing migrants. In certain areas such as medicine, there is a strong case for having diversity due to the nature of research and advancement; the same cannot be said at the low skilled worker end of the spectrum.

How does low skilled migrants benefit working class people chasing the same job, does more competition help them?

If so how?

How does competing with hundreds of people help you?

 Tom Harris added:

“For the first time our politicians are living in an environment where there is at least a possibility that if we don't train up Scottish youngsters to fulfil those roles we may not be able to rely on an unending supply of foreign workers to do those jobs for us. It puts a huge amount of pressure on politicians and it's something we should welcome, that for the first time in a generation these politicians are actually going to have to put their money where their mouth is and actually deliver on training of the indigenous population. They've been allowed to ignore that for too long because they've always been aware the safety net of EU immigration has been there.”

So, for decades, the bottom line is that politicians have abandoned the very people they purport to serve; this is why politicians are held in utter contempt by many people.

To prove my point, this morning, I was campaigning for a candidate, street stall stuff, no big deal, early morning, as I was trying to hand a person a leaflet, the individual who I had never met told me to ‘fuck off’.

I don’t know about you, but telling people to fuck off before 9 am isn’t on, you would need to wait till after dinner time, had someone do something bad to you and be having a really bad day for me to go down that road.

Finally, Dr Peter Bennie, chair of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said Scotland could build on a very limited existing ability to have different migration policies in different parts of the UK.

He said:

“There's a UK shortage occupation list, which includes a number of medical specialities where we simply don't have enough home graduates to fill those places at present. There's a separate and additional Scottish shortage occupation list, which includes additional specialities. It seems to me that works very smoothly already for non-EU, non-EEA citizens. Therefore we've got at least the bones of that kind of structure, and I think it could work.”

We should be producing our own home grown medics, much more than we do now, so I agree with Bennie and what he said about the existing provisions and the need for improvement in educating our young people.

Finally, as Muscatelli sits on standing council on Europe, some may take his wittering seriously, but at the end of the day, if you go down the pub, you could get another opinion. Although some people class him as an ‘expert’ I don’t, opinion maybe fact and then again it may not be fact.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University