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COMMUNISTS in Scotland and Wales said today that Brexit would take Britain closer to a federal set-up with more powers for its constituent nations.
“Scottish and Welsh Communists have long supported the case for a federal Britain. We believe this is the only constitutional settlement that will empower the workers and peoples of our countries to control and develop their economies, while maintaining labour movement unity and redistributing the wealth owned largely by the capitalist class,” the Scottish committee of the Communist Party and the Welsh Communist Party declared in a joint statement.
The statement, signed by Tommy Morrison as secretary of the Scottish committee and Trevor Jones as secretary of the Welsh Communist Party, said Brexit would “mean a major transfer of powers from the European Commission and other bureaucratic EU agencies to the elected legislatures and governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
“As a result of Brexit, decision-making powers in 64 areas of policy will be transferred from the EU and Brussels to both the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly of Wales.
“In particular, the Scottish and Welsh legislatures and governments will gain additional powers over state aid to industry, public-sector procurement, rail franchises, equalities legislation, agriculture, forestry, land use, carbon capture and storage, environmental and energy standards, planning consent, onshore hydrocarbon licences, radioactive shipments, animal welfare, food standards and public health and safety protection.
“In 43 additional areas, Scotland’s greater degree of devolution will mean new powers over renewable energy, rail markets and operating licences, social security and criminal justice including child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
“In all these areas, there is every prospect that Scottish and Welsh law-makers will develop policies that can only improve on the low standards set in Brussels and Westminster.
“This makes it all the more astonishing that, in opposing Brexit, the SNP and Plaid Cymru are presumably content for all these powers to remain with the unelected EU Commission and other EU agencies.
“Should these parties ever achieve their aim of Scotland and Wales becoming separate member states inside the EU, the prospects of these powers coming to our two countries are zero. What they would achieve, however, is separation from our two countries’ biggest trading partner by far, namely, a non-EU England.”
