Cameron gets my vote for once
THERE can’t be many good weeks to be David Cameron, the worst British prime minister in modern times.
But last weekend, as I tried to unknot the constitutional mare’s nest of Catalonia, I was grateful for his premiership.
The Catalan unilateral declaration of independence has little effect on the Scottish independence debate.
But imagine what would be happening now had Cameron not staged the 2014 referendum here. Had Scotland not voted then, Nicola Sturgeon would be under fierce pressure from hardcore nationalists to follow the Catalan example.
They staged an illegal referendum, violently opposed by the Spanish state, and declared independence on the back of a 92 per cent yes vote on a 43 per cent turn-out.
Some SNP MSPs are dancing in the streets at the Catalan crisis, although Sturgeon is canny enough to keep her distance.
Last week, I was in Majorca, the Catalan island whose relationship with Barcelona is akin to Shetland’s regard for Edinburgh.
They weren’t dancing there. Anyone celebrating the breakaway Catalan republic should be careful what they wish for.
The only parallel that can be drawn between Scotland and Catalonia is that we had a legally held referendum and an undisputed result that settled the issue. Not forever – but for now at least.