EDINBURGH, May 26 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The rise of the far-right across Europe is the fault of failing EU institutions, Derek Bateman, a senior political commentator and broadcast journalist has told RIA Novosti.
“More widely across the continent, the rise of the populist Right – and worse – is a monument to the institutional failings of the EU,” Bateman told RIA Novosti.
“It has not reformed itself internally. It has not democratized and it cannot communicate with the people it represents,” Bateman added. “It has not fostered a sense of communitaire empathy and is too remote from people while still directing their lives.”
Bateman, a political correspondent with the BBC for more than 20 years, told RIA Novosti that the EU should have done more to address “social anxiety” about immigration.
“It is in a state of stasis on immigration, believing only that while immigrants add to the economy, then restrictions cannot be justified,” Bateman said.
“The EU should be helping countries to plan and prepare for new people arriving instead of leaving it to member states to react retrospectively when schools are full, accommodation filled and jobs taken,” Bateman added.
Turning to the success of the Ukip result in Scotland, where the party picked up its first elected representative by winning one of six MEP seats, Bateman said the result should help focus more progressive support in Scotland.
“Much of Scotland will feel disgust at having a Ukip person in our body politic and he will turn up on television and radio and present a deeply unpleasant and politically incompetent image supporting the Union,” Bateman told RIA Novosti. “It makes the comparison between Yes and No sharper and more urgent.”
Meanwhile, political commentator and author Jim Sillars, a former pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) Deputy Leader, urged his party to rethink its pro-EU membership policy.
“There is also a problem with the SNP policy,” Sillars told RIA Novosti.
“It comes over as too pro-EU, with virtually no critique of the mess Brussels has made of the economy, nor any criticism of its Federal agenda,” Sillars said.
“[SNP Leader] Alex Salmond's cry of ‘Keep Ukip out of Scotland’ is not what you would call a coherent policy,” Sillars added. “It is time for the SNP to do what I have been urging for years, turn to the European Free Trade Association as the alternative to EU membership.”
