The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
MacAskill’s ‘51st state’ of US warning
Boris Johnson is intent on turning the UK into the 51st state of the US, with independence for Scotland the only way to escape this, a former Holyrood Cabinet secretary and newly-elected SNP MP has claimed.
Kenny MacAskill, the former Scottish justice secretary, claimed the prime minister was “undermining” the UK welfare state and attacking the country’s “social and civic infrastructure”.
With the prime minister having vowed to oppose a bid by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to secure a second independence referendum, Mr MacAskill – elected as MP for East Lothian in this month’s general election – said it did not appear as if such a vote would be held “any time soon”.
He also insisted the Tories and their policies would “act as recruiting sergeant” for the independence cause.
Mr MacAskill, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, insisted: “We do need to push for a second independence referendum, that is the democratic right of the Scottish people.
“The intransigent attitude of the prime minister is undemocratic to say the very least.
“Equally, it does seem that it is not coming immediately, or indeed in any time soon, and on that basis we have both to use the time wisely, to build the base so that when we go, we win handsomely.”
He continued: “Forty years on from Thatcher when she attacked our industrial base, he is now out to attack the social and civic infrastructure that we have in our welfare state.”
The former Cabinet secretary continued: “I think by the time we get to next year the people of Scotland are going to realise the direction of travel that Boris Johnson is taking Britain on. I believe that more and more people in Scotland will say that that is not the society they seek.
“The only way to avoid being taken into becoming the 51st state, a country where the social services, the welfare state is being dismantled before our very eyes, is to vote for independence and to become an independent nation in the European Union,” Mr MacAskill added.