Collapse of the insufferable SNP is a cause for joy
OF ALL the extraordinary outcomes in this month’s general election, none was more unexpected or welcome than the collapse in support for the Scottish National Party. So insufferably full of their own importance, so relentlessly strident in their demands, the Nationalists were deservedly the biggest losers in the contest with 21 of their 56 MPs defeated.
The march towards independence seemed almost inexorable but now Nicola Sturgeon and her Tartan Army no longer command the field. They have been battered, bruised and beaten while Scottish unionism has emerged as a far more potent political force than it has been in years.
The catalogue of losing MPs graphically illustrated the extent of the SNP’s decline. Out went smug former party leader Alex Salmond, no longer able to peddle his offensive brand of smirking sarcasm. Joining him was Angus Robertson, the absurdly sanctimonious SNP chief at Westminster who delighted in sneering at Theresa May. She is still Prime Minister, he is in the political wilderness.
The roll call of defeat is a monument to the Scottish Nationalists’ vanity and hubris. As one SNP party source said recently: “The scale of the reversals flies in the face of our breathless selfcongratulation.”
THE consequences of this setback were illustrated earlier in the week when Ms Sturgeon announced that she had put her cherished scheme for an imminent second independence referendum on hold. She had planned to hold such a vote between next year and the spring of 2019 but after the general election embarrassment that timetable is no longer feasible. Indeed it is now possible that such a vote will never take place.
Long portrayed as a canny political operator, Sturgeon has seen her credibility weakened and her judgment exposed as fallible. Over her independence dreams, she has been outmanoeuvred by both Theresa May and Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Tories whose passion and charisma have reignited the fires of Scottish unionism. As Davidson soars there are rumblings in Sturgeon’s own party against her. “It is quite remarkable the degree to which briefings against the leadership have spread,” wrote columnist Euan McColm at the weekend.
Such despair is understandable because Sturgeon’s entire political strategy has been flawed. Her constant agitation for a second referendum, so soon after the 2014 vote, showed a contempt for both democracy and the opinions of the majority of Scots who wanted to stay in the Union.
Moreover, her demand for another ballot flew in the face of her pledge, regularly voiced on the campaign trail, that the 2014 referendum was a “once in a lifetime opportunity”.
Just as misguided was her belief that the nationwide vote for Brexit in June 2016 would boost her campaign since Scotland voted strongly for Remain – but the opposite has happened. Brexit has actually succeeded in exposing so many of the fallacies and contradictions of Scottish independence.
Sturgeon keeps wailing about the supposed difficulties and recklessness of leaving the European Union but her argument inadvertently undermines her case for Scottish selfrule given that the British Union is far older, more cohesive and stronger than Brussels’ creaking structure. The United Kingdom has been a sovereign parliamentary state since 1707. In contrast the unelected oligarchy of the EU has existed only since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992.
Equally wrongheaded is Sturgeon’s shrill assertion that the UK must stay in the European single market yet she wants to take Scotland out of the British single market, which is far more important to the Scottish economy.
SCOTLAND’S trade with the rest of the UK, worth around £50billion, is more than four times higher than its exports to the EU, which brings in £12.3billion. In the same illogical way the SNP portrays its cause as a form of freedom from colonial rule by London yet the party wants to enmesh Scotland within the EU’s failing, unaccountable empire, making a mockery of the very concept of national independence.
The Scottish electorate is fed up not only with such irrationalities but also with how the SNP’s obsession with independence is destroying the effective governance of Scotland. Myopia about the constitutional question has driven the Scottish economy and its public services into permanent crisis.
Growth is nonexistent while the fiscal deficit has soared to £15billion, proportionately higher than any other country in Europe. Oil revenues, on which the SNP built so much of their economic case for independence, have plummeted, down from £11billion four years ago to just £60million last year.
In almost every field SNP rule at Holyrood has been a failure. Despite the largesse from the English taxpayer, educational standards have fallen, NHS waiting lists have lengthened and social mobility has worsened. A massive reorganisation of eight regional police forces into one single force descended into an expensive fiasco.
Most Scots want solid competence, not Braveheart posturing. The high water mark of Caledonian separatism has passed. That can only be good for the United Kingdom as Brexit allows us to embrace real national independence rather than the SNP’s regional, divisive and phoney version.
‘Another referendum may never happen’