Carry On Nicola!

IT WILL come as no surprise to my reader, but I never have been a fan of the Scottish National Party (SNP), although there was a time when I was proudly a personal friend of an SNP MP, Margaret Ewing. She was married to Fergus Ewing, the son of the first SNP MP ever elected to Westminster, one Winnie Ewing. Margaret and Fergus were my friends. We socialised happily. Margaret was proudly Scottish but not English-hating in any way. Sadly she died some years ago.

Since those days, the SNP has changed. I first noticed it when Alex Salmond appeared at Westminster. He was very different to Margaret. It was almost impossible to stand next to him in a Westminster bar without some sarcastic, anti-English comment parting his lips. A friend he was not. Despite all that, the trauma he has allegedly experienced at the hands of the SNP he once led, leaves me with considerable sympathy for his predicament. His one-time colleague and admirer, Nicola Sturgeon, puts even Alex to shame when it comes to her obsessive hatred of the UK and her determination to survive as SNP leader, whatever the cost.

The row engulfing the SNP, between Salmond and Sturgeon, is ironically halting the their drive towards a referendum, whilst support for Scottish independence in the polls is taking an unexpected dive. The fact that the two Scottish politicians who have done most to try to break up the UK are now happily tearing each other apart, as well as their Scottish independence ambitions, would probably break Margaret Ewing’s heart. For me, a staunch Unionist, I’m loving every minute of it! Carry on Nicola, you are doing a grand job! The Union isn’t finished yet.