PROUD? WALKOUT WAS SHAMEFUL
IN March last year, several MSPs walked out of a Holyrood debate on Scottish independence.
Their reasons were sound. News was coming in of a terrorist attack in Westminster in which several people had died. Were their colleagues safe? Indeed, was Holyrood now safe?
More immediate questions, many supposed, than whether Scotland should be a self-governing country.
And yet, as politicians left, the SNP spleen machine went into overdrive. ‘This is because you didn’t want to talk about independence,’ hissed Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham at the Tory benches.
Compare and contrast with the walk-out we saw this week. All 35 SNP members at Westminster trooped out like lemmings after leader Ian Blackford refused to sit – or pipe – down. Outside they laughed and posed for selfies, forgetting they’d left a ‘script’ for their planned disruption on the benches inside.
‘Utterly shameful’ is one of Nicola Sturgeon’s most overused turns of phrase. Yet she is ‘very proud’ of this shower. WHO among us Scots has not let out a squeak of delight as England’s pomp has been punctured by a goal – preferably of German or Argentinian origin – at the World Cup Finals? But is it time we grew up? Probably. It’s the first World Cup since 2014. For those of us who showed then we care about the Union, it shouldn’t be too big an ask to show some caring for other countries in it.