About Michael Sturrock – My Journey from No to Yes
I was raised in Edinburgh Southern before I went off to university. During my studies, and just before the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, I won a place on the EU’s Erasmus Scheme to spend a year studying in Paris. I was always pro-Europe, but being given the opportunity to live, study and work in the French capital solidified my belief that being part of the EU was an invaluable asset.
So, when the Better Together campaign told us that the only way of securing Scotland’s place in Europe was by staying in the UK, I believed them. What’s more, they told us we’d have a new “Union of Equals”. They told us that if we didn’t “leave the Union, we’d lead the Union”.
That was six years ago. Since then, I have been stripped of my EU citizenship and watched in horror as the UK has turned away from our closest neighbours. Brexit is a nightmare. We have a homophobic, xenophobic Prime Minister whose party has presided over cuts to vital services and startling levels of inequality.
I’m in my 20s, and my generation—and increasing numbers across Scotland—want none of it. We want Scotland to flourish as an outward-looking, compassionate, progressive European nation. We know that to solve the biggest problems of the day we have to work in partnership with our EU neighbours. Only independence will allow us to do that now.