Mr Europe

Fighting for Scotland’s Place in the EU

By Robbie Dinwoodie

MICHAEL Russell is enjoying a brief snatch of down time at home in Glendaruel on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll, a break in the hectic schedule of his late career twist as the Holyrood Government’s Brexit Minister.

In a wide-ranging interview with iScot he made clear that he is determined to continue to seek compromise with the UK Government to enable a softer Scottish Brexit, but that the First Minister is not bluffing on IndyRef 2 if it comes to that.

He stressed: “This is a very important moment for Scotland. This is about how we see ourselves, what type of country we want to be and the type of people we think we are. We see something we don’t like very much developing South of the Border.

“As I said in the Chamber recently it looks like a hard Brexit means a hard Britain. It looks hard-faced and inward looking. It looks unsympathetic. There’s a lot of rhetoric about a global trading nation and no substance in fact. There’s just vagueness.

Mike Russell being interviewed in his Argyll and Bute constituency

“So a lot of people are saying, is this where we want to be? Is this the type of thing we want to be or do we want to be something else? It’s very important to have that debate, and that is now going on. One of the jobs Nicola asked me to do was to make sure I was listening to people about their views on Brexit. There is concern, but there is also a realisation that this is one of those moments where you have to decide what you want to be and how you want to live your life.”