BRITISH Establishment figures relied heavily on the fear factor during the Scottish independence referendum and they are doing the same on European Union membership.

Many Scots reacted negatively to slurs that they couldn’t run their own affairs without guidance from Westminster and the City of London.

There will be a similar reaction to the scaremongering by Britain Stronger In Europe figurehead and former M&S boss Lord Rose that leaving the EU would be a “leap into the dark.”

He raised the spectre of an independent Britain losing access to EU markets , but why should EU members cut off their noses to spite their faces by axing trade with Britain?

Britain had a trading surplus with EU states when it joined the EU four decades ago, but this is no longer the case.

For the EU to deny entry to British goods or impose tariffs would be self-defeating since it would block their own exports to Britain.

Lord Rose is guilty of the same dishonesty that EU propagandists displayed in 1975 when they insisted that joining would bring “jobs for the boys.”

Apart from the sexism in the slogan, Britain’s industrial base and manufacturing employment slumped after entry — not entirely but partly due to EU membership.

Rose claims that remaining in the EU is “patriotic,” which is bizarre given the efforts to frighten voters into thinking that a state of 60 million people cannot thrive without giving up its sovereignty.

National independence is something to be cherished not feared.

Independent states can unite without problem in regional trading organisations, as happens in Latin America, southern Africa, central Asia and elsewhere.

They can co-operate in policing, environmental protection and other areas for mutual benefit.

But voluntary arrangements to co-ordinate policies are completely different from a supranational project such as the EU, which imposes a sole neoliberal economic model on all member countries, complete with the trappings of a sovereign state to ensure compliance.

The unelected and unaccountable European Commission, advised by the European Round Table of Industrialists, is solely responsible for putting forward legislation binding on all EU states.

The European Court of Justice prioritises the EU four freedoms of movement —services, capital, goods and people — over industrial agreements and even domestic law, delivering judgements that undermine workers’ pay rates and conditions.

Labour and the trade unions, like the Communist Party and the Morning Star, supported Britain’s withdrawal from the EU in the 1975 referendum.

However, the first two dropped this position a decade later in light of lavish promises about a “social Europe” that seemed incredible — as indeed they were.

Many trade union and Labour leaders still worship at this shrine to the social Europe will o’ the wisp — joined now by Greens and nationalists — but their prayers will go unanswered.

Have they learned nothing from the subjection of the Greek people by the commission and the European Central Bank?

Do they believe that such single-minded devotion to the interests of the banks is compatible with the dream of solidarity voiced by those who haven’t twigged that the social Europe horse has bolted?

Some labour movement EU apologists concede that the bloc has problems and propose its transformation, but there is no democratic structure for doing so.

The democratic deficit is no accident. The EU was deliberately designed to facilitate corporate profits without risk of derailment by popular discontent.

There is no benefit for working people in remaining within this bankers’ Europe. The verdict has to be No.