The SNP is turning Scotland into a failed state

Even the latest shameful farce in Edinburgh is unlikely to stop the march of the Scottish nationalists

Is it all over? Is Scotland’s independence now merely a matter of time, the passions too intense, the hatreds overly deep, the bad blood inexpungeable? Will Boris Johnson’s greatest legacy be the dissolution of the most successful political union in modern history, rather than the triumph of Brexit and the recovery from Covid?

I very much hope not. Despite the indefensible subsidies, the antienglish propaganda, the entrenched Left-wing voting bloc in Westminster, I’m still – just – a unionist, for personal, emotional, philosophical and strategic reasons. I love the United Kingdom, a beautiful, living construct, in so many ways a beacon to the world since 1707.

I dread the consequences for Scotland of absorption into a declining EU, and for England of a fraught, troublesome land, monetary and regulatory border with Europe. The end of the British Armed Forces would be the greatest tragedy of our times, an act of unforgivable vandalism. I would mourn the impact of Scottish secession on Wales and Northern Ireland, on the monarchy, and on those citizens, often from immigrant backgrounds, who are more comfortable describing themselves as British than English.

The enlightenment was conceptualised by brilliant Scots such as Adam Smith, David Hume and Adam Ferguson, but in recent decades many of their ideas reinspired England, especially during the Thatcher years. While Scotland may be socialist today, its 18th-century philosophers were in many ways describing Britain’s evolving political economy, including the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, as Alan Mcfarlane implies in the Origins of English Individualism.

But the horror show in Holyrood over the past few weeks fills me with foreboding. Regardless of how atrociously the SNP behaves, or how uselessly it governs, it remains by far the most popular party in Scotland, on course to win the parliamentary elections in May, and poll after poll registers a majority for independence.

Let me remind you, dear readers, of the mad saga gripping Edinburgh, exposing not merely a nationalist establishment in open warfare but also a parliament that has lost control, a constitutional settlement in crisis and a banana republic in the making.

In a series of explosive allegations that followed a botched Scottish government inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct against him, Alex Salmond, the former first minister, alleged that there was “a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned”.

Imagine if the latter allegation in particular had been made in England, with a former PM accusing the new government in such extraordinary terms: the story would have gone around the world, whether or not the claims turned out to be true. The people Salmond named in his submissions to a Scottish Parliament inquiry included Nicola Sturgeon’s husband and her chief of staff. He also claimed that Sturgeon misled Parliament and breached the ministerial code. She and the others deny the claims.

Yet still the story gets worse: the SNP repeatedly prevented Salmond from publishing his claims, thus not allowing them to be scrutinised freely. The Spectator took legal action to force publication and a judge sided with the magazine. Following yet more absurd shenanigans, the submission was published but the Scottish Parliament U-turned again and chose to redact Salmond’s claims after the Scottish Crown Office cited “grave concerns” that some material could be in contempt of court.

This episode was as bizarre as it was sinister: since when do prosecutors make these kinds of informal warnings? In England, the equivalent would have been the Crown Prosecution Service trying to block the release of a document, and the Commons, astonishingly, agreeing. Since when does Crown defeat Parliament in Britain? Where is the division of power? Where is the accountability? Where are the concerned human rights lawyers?

This is a shameful farce, and ought to be of concern to all British citizens: here is an integral part of the UK, cradle of the rule of law and democracy, plunged into a dubious judicio-political imbroglio of the kind ordinarily seen only in failed states and authoritarian regimes.

Yet none of this seems to count. Yes, the SNP’S poll ratings may end up dipping a little, but nobody thinks their position is truly at risk. Scotland today is a classic rotten borough: it doesn’t matter how abominably the SNP behaves, it always wins. The party can’t lose even when, like now, it tries exceptionally hard. Tragically, Scotland has become a one-party crony-state.

The reason is cultural: the SNP symbolises nationalism, and that matters more than Left or Right cleavages, competence or honesty. While Scotland didn’t actually do anything like as well as its supporters claim, the mere fact that the SNP was in charge of its own Covid policy has turbocharged the pro-independence cause.

Tony Blair’s flawed devolution settlement was the original sin. The Scottish Parliament would be responsible for spending money, but not raising it. England would continue to fund Scotland. The result was power without responsibility, welfarism and, eventually, the demise of the old Scottish Labour establishment and its replacement with a radicalised, demagogic SNP with no interest in facts, reason or truth.

Westminster Conservatives cannot simply look away, terrified that any attention from London would add fuel to the nationalist fire or help Labour. This is about the national interest: Scotland needs better political options, even if that means more Labour (as well as Tory) MPS, and the Union needs saving. Unionists, Labour as well as Tory, must set aside their silly tribalism and cooperate; ditto Brexiteers and Remainers. A fully separate Scottish Tory party needs to be created.

The Conservatives must finally find the people and language to fight the secessionists. We must all hope it works, for the very integrity of British democracy is now at stake.