Sputnik: Do you see Boris Johnson granting Scotland a second independence referendum?
Colin Fox: I think Boris Johnson will not entertain the idea; remember, he needs to grant permission to the Scottish government to hold a second referendum, it needs to come from Westminster so I don’t see that changing.
Sputnik: Why do you feel Nicola Sturgeon is so pro EU, given the fact that Brussel’s policies have often been harmful to Scotland?
Colin Fox: I think the SNP have made a profound mistake in linking the case for membership of the EU with Scotland’s case for self-determination, as far as I’m concerned these are completely separate issues.
It doesn’t serve the case for independence any good; the argument that somehow is offered is that Scotland wants the right to determine its own decisions, free from Westminster’s interference, only to hand them back to Brussels where we’d have no independence whatsoever.
Look at the case of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland; they didn’t have any independent opportunity to make their own decisions inside the EU, so for me as a socialist I want to ensure that Scotland’s got the right to take its own decisions free from interference from anywhere.
Sputnik: Would a no-deal Brexit be as bad as Nicola Sturgeon claims?
Colin Fox: Nicola Sturgeon’s credibility in this has been shot to pieces in the last three years. She has predicted all sorts of economic catastrophes and armageddon for Scotland ever since 2016, and they’ve palpably failed to materialise.
I don’t think she has any idea what’s going to happen with Brexit on the 31st of October, or whenever Boris Johnson gets or doesn’t get a deal, so I think she would be wiser to keep the two issues separated and concentrate on her day job, which is essentially to make the case for independence and show the working people in Scotland how they’ll be better off economically, politically and socially by being independent, and that’s what she should be doing, but unfortunately she’s been distracted from that job for some time now.
