Lawyer calls for united business front to keep Scotland in EU

Scotland's business sector should unite in exploring every possible route to keep Scotland in the European Union, according to a prominent Scottish solicitor.

Writing in today's Herald, Philip Rodney, chairman of commercial firm Burness Paull, says that as a "committed European and internationalist" he voted No in the independence referendum and Remain in the EU referendum. 

Mr Rodney continues: "While I would stil find it hard to bring myself to vote to break up the UK, I would not find it difficult to support moves by Scotland to remain in the EU even if other parts of the UK chose to do something else."

Assuming such a result to be achievable – which he suggests it might be with the necessary political will – Mr Rodney believes that such an outcome could put Scotland in an "emphatically strong place", if the City of London were denied access to the single market, as it could offer an English speaking destination with an infrastructure "effectively identical to London's", and Edinburgh and Glasgow could see a "renaissance as centres of the financial services sector".

However quick action is needed for the idea to get off the ground, by "a broad church of people prepared to put political ideologies aside and willing to explore every eventuality to have Scotland active in a new alliance with Europe".