The deeply misguided UK debate over EU membership has unmistakeable echoes of our own Scottish referendum in 2014 on independence.
We on the pro-independence side wanted, and still want to, remain within the EU family, but as an independent state. No special deals, just a democratically agreed outcome with the remaining UK and the other EU states.
Scotland is considerably more pro-EU than our southern neighbours, and we were told the only way to guarantee EU membership was to remain with the UK. Well, if a week is a long time in politics two years is an eternity. We reserve our right to do what is best for Scotland.
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As far as we are concerned, everyone who lives in Scotland is Scottish, so all EU nationals living in Scotland had a right to vote in our referendum on the future of the community they are part of.
We also extended the vote to 16 and 17 year olds because there is clear evidence, especially from Austria, that this is just the best thing to do. In the UK, despite our best efforts, some 2.6 million EU nationals have been specifically excluded and the right to vote remains at 18.
So those people with the most to lose, and those with the greatest stake in the future have been shut out of a debate. The debate is ugly and getting worse, but being based on a delusion of British exceptionalism and exclusivity how can it not be?