Labour the new Scottish Tories?

David Miliband who has been on a prolonged sulk since loosing the Labour Leadership contest and been earning lucrative amounts from directorships though he still supposed to be representing his constituents of  South Shields yesterday warned an independent Scotland would have to

 “take its place in the queue” if it wanted to join the EU, and couldn’t just “leave the union on Friday, join the European Union on Monday”.

He told ScotsPolitics.com:

“This argument about Europe I’m quite interested in, because I’ve sat in European enlargement negotiations… and there are 35 chapters of EU legislation that you have to go through, and every line you have to ask ‘does the entry of this country change it?’
“And then you get down to voting, because in the Council of Ministers, every country has a certain amount of votes – so when you get a new member you have to change the voting weights; and critically, you change the amount of money that different countries pay when there’s a new member.
“So you can see, there’s 7 or 8 countries in the queue already – and Scotland would have to take its place in the queue of negotiating its entry.
“So one of the things that concerns me if you vote for independence, is that you leave the UK, but you’ll be in limbo in Europe – it’s not like ‘leave the union on Friday, join the European Union on Monday’.”

But Miliband also  make s it clear that Labour would carry out the cuts agenda in the same way the Tories/LibDem are currently doing 

“There’s been a change in the psychology of the country actually – social security support has moved from being seen as a birthright to being something that’s balanced by responsibilities as part of a social contract,” 

. “And the truth is we’re storing up massive problems for ourselves. The net present value cost of that level of … unemployment is £30billion at today’s prices. There’s a hard message on this as well: you can only afford to [fix unemployment] if you’re willing to put on the table other things that you can’t then spend on.

“You know, an easy answer is ‘well, tax bankers’ bonuses’. But if we’re honest, we’re gonna have to rebalance the welfare state so that it’s much more in favour of supporting the things that are priorities rather than things that aren’t. Childcare and housing are massive drains at a time when wages aren’t rising very fast.”

A message that has already being promoted by Scottish Labour Leader  Johann Lamont, in September  who  delivered a speech challenging some of the underlying orthodoxies within Scottish politics and raising the prospect of an end to some universal benefits such as free tuition fees and free perceptions.

Not a message we hear from her compatriots in Wales .

It looks that Scottish Labour is not only the main voice of Unionism in Scotland it is also the main voice of conservatism.

In its efforts to undermine the SNP Labour have shamelessly adopted the policies of the Tories whilst hoping their current supporters will remain loyal.

And Labour Unionist are putting forward incredibly ridiculous  arguments  against Independence as Gerry Hassan points out here 

Including warning that 

• British music will no longer be our music’, and suggesting that British culture and sporting achievement would thus become foreign.(Alastair Dar;ing)
•  That independence would mean Scotland becoming the equivalent of a ‘British colony’. SNP plans  would  ‘a form of self-imposed colonialism more reminiscent of the old Empire’.(Gordon Brown)

As for Milliband dire warning that Scotland will have to join the queue to join the EU if it  voted for Independence despite no precedent or this, As no nation that was a EU Member has ever split up  although Greenland(an autonomous province of Denmark) withdrew in 1985

But if he is right wouldn't the remnant of England and Wales  also have to apply?After all it is a Union and shouldn't the new Nations that emerge from a Yes vote be treated equally by the EU?

Or is the idea of a Union of equals nothing but a myth.