Keeping The Light On by James Miller

Description

In the 2016 Referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, Scotland voted to remain by 62 per cent to 38. Despite this convincing result the outcome in England with its majority vote to leave overruled Scotland’s decision. The result came as a shock to many people in the Highlands, as in the rest of the country.

Keeping the Light On takes the reader on an absorbing journey through the events leading up to the Referendum and the explanations of the voting patterns. It covers how the Scottish Highlands fared during the years of EU membership and how important differences have played out between Scotland and England in their relations with mainland Europe during preceding centuries. It also contains a brief survey of the history of the EU as an experiment in supranational cooperation arising from the optimism during the years after the Second World War had devastated so much of European life; and recounts the muddled debates in Westminster as the Conservative government wrestled with Brexit negotiations it had not planned for.

There are also sections devoted to the different story playing out north of the Border. The final chapters of the book look at developments on the European continent and the future of the EU itself in the current ‘bonfire of the certainties.’

The title – Keeping the Light On – echoes a phrase often expressed during the post-Brexit debates, first voiced by the Scottish MEP Alyn Smith in the chamber of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the day after the Referendum and repeated by many commentators. Miller broadens the phrase to include the future of the EU and social democracy itself. James Miller was born and brought up in Caithness and has written several books on Highland themes including The Dambuilders, Inverness: A History, Scapa, The Gathering Stream and The Finest Road in the World.

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