Only the Union can rescue our economy

AS an alliance of four nations, we have weathered the coronavirus storm by working together in a time of crisis.

The past few months have been a powerful demonstration of the effectiveness of that collaborative approach.

And Boris Johnson was right yesterday to underline the fact that the Union has proved its worth ‘time and time again’.

While lockdown has been lifted at varying speeds, the overall strategy has been similar on both sides of the Border.

It’s obvious even to the most committed Nationalist that in an independent Scotland a furlough scheme wouldn’t have happened. A debt-laden fledgling state would not have been capable of sustaining such a monumentally expensive – and necessary – initiative.

The consequences for countless livelihoods would have been profound as unemployment soared to dizzying levels.

Indeed, without the support of the furlough scheme, many of those most vocal in their condemnation of Mr Johnson’s administration would be out of a job.

Scotland also reaps the benefits of Union membership in the form of Barnett consequentials, paid to the Scottish public purse as a proportionate share of UK Government spending.

Mr Johnson correctly highlights ‘very good and very close collaboration’ during the pandemic, despite the ‘surface differences and the polemics’.

As the pandemic unfolded, the SNP attempted at every turn to exploit those differences for its own political ends.

True, the Nationalists were given a boost by a recent opinion poll which suggested support for independence was rising.

But the campaign for independence is still hobbled by a lack of concrete answers to a host of questions over its proposed breakup of the UK.

The incoherency and hypocrisy of the SNP’s constitutional policy aside, the future of Scotland was decided once and for all back in 2014.

That was the only poll that truly counted, no matter how much revisionist Nationalist politicians try to rewrite history.

It’s heartening that the UK Government is now focusing renewed effort on the preservation of the Union, led by Michael Gove, who has made it clear that another referendum is off the table.

And it’s vital the Conservatives continue to highlight the achievements of a Union which, as the Prime Minister described it, remains the ‘oldest, most successful political partnership in the world’.

In stark contrast, the bitter and insular politics of grievance-driven Nationalism offer only more division and diversion from the task of rescuing our economy.