Europe and Scotland - can't live with them, can't live without them

As if on cue, up pops the Centre for European Reform (CER) with 96 pages of assertions on the supposed economic benefits of EU membership. These claim to be the final, authoritative word on the matter.

According to modelling by the CER, Britain’s EU membership has boosted its trade in goods with other member states by 55 per cent. If we left, our car industry would wither and die, the City would be toast and, like Norway, we would have to obey the EU’s rules without having any say in them, a claim that ignores the fact that China and many others do manage to trade successfully with Europe without so much as a by your leave. Nor does the CER report explain why the US happens to be Britain’s biggest export market even though the UK is not in a single market with the US.