{"id":692726,"date":"2026-01-13T07:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692726\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:35:12","slug":"political-heavyweights-limber-up-for-rejoin-eu-debate-at-glasgow-uni-the-nen-north-edinburgh-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692726\/","title":{"rendered":"Political heavyweights limber up for rejoin EU debate at Glasgow Uni \u2013 The NEN \u2013 North Edinburgh News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SNP\u2019s Alyn Smith leads for rejoin while Political scientist Dr. Michael Scanlan opposes motion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nen.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/emis-big-debate.jpg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/emis-big-debate.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-221078\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Two heavyweight political thinkers will go head-to-head on Friday 16th\u00a0January when they debate the motion \u2018that Scotland and the UK should rejoin the European Union.\u2018 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Leading in support of the motion is former SNP MP and MEP Alyn Smith. Glasgow University\u00a0political scientist Dr. Michael Scanlan will oppose the proposition. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The debate has been organised by Glasgow University Dialectical Society. Several of its student members will speak respectively for and against the motion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>The debate was proposed and is being supported by the European Movement in Scotland (EMiS). Alyn Smith, who is a vice-president of EMiS, says: \u201cThere are undergraduates at universities across the UK who were still in primary school when the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThey were not given a vote or a voice. They didn\u2019t get to engage in the arguments for Remain or Leave. The debate at Glasgow University Union will help to engage a new generation in the case for Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Colson Merrill, Convener of Debates, says that Glasgow University has a global reputation for its debating. \u201cOur debates are famous for the quality of the oratory and the expertise and intellectual grasp of speakers, both guests and students. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cPart of our tradition is that we encourage speakers to be respectful of their opponents. Speakers who deeply understand their subject and deploy facts, logic and humour are usually the most persuasive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Erasmus returns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Following sustained campaigning by organisations including EMiS, the London government announced in early December that the UK will rejoin the Erasmus + scheme. The Erasmus student exchange scheme was previously mainly accessed by students in higher education. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, Erasmus will now be open to young people from a wide range of education, training courses and jobs, including apprentices and those in specialist training, including agriculture and sport, and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>David Clarke, chair of EMiS says: \u201cThe UK returning to Erasmus is very welcome. Our young people deserve to live in a Scotland and a UK where they can benefit from being Europeans.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SNP\u2019s Alyn Smith leads for rejoin while Political scientist Dr. Michael Scanlan opposes motion Two heavyweight political thinkers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-692726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115886641912830935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}