Flag-waving populists are damaging the cause of independence

Tommy Sheridan and nationalism’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee won’t win over No voters, writes Laura Waddell

It has been impossible to watch recent scenes in Westminster, returned kicking and screaming and reaching new lows in standards of conduct, without reflecting on the difference between it and the Scottish Parliament, which, even on its wildest days, is demonstrably more functional in procedural communication and manner. Westminster’s corrosive discussion style rewards smirk and smarm, sarcasm and grandiloquence. Ratings for the BBC Parliament channel have shot up. Many new viewers will find themselves nauseated by the baying.

Bolshy tub-thumping does please a select audience. Those who rejoice in Brexit chaos and spread opportunistic lines of establishment shake-up, those who scream “traitors”, and those who require Gina Miller to have security protection. This is the Union Jack-clad contingent that has dragged the “debate” further right and that more moderate eurosceptics have been unable to contain.

The Scottish independence movement, in opposition to this, should find it easier this time around to offer a markedly different alternative. The drawbacks of belonging in the Union are more readily demonstrable, with logic and reason increasingly thin on the ground. In this light, Sturgeon’s reputation as level-headed, intelligent, and engaged is more than ever a massive asset to persuading former No voters over the line.

In 2014, her predecessor Alex Salmond’s palpable desire to “win” a point, and the relish with which he appeared to be playing the game, was satisfying for those who already agreed with him and deeply irritating for those who didn’t. Some of those developing in Salmond’s mould have more than a little hint of that egotistical hubris, and it is unlikely to do the movement favours in the long run.

Joanna Cherry’s excellent contribution to legal challenges to prorogation of Parliament has both shown her strengths as a QC and boosted her Uk-wide profile. There’s a return to the Court of Session in Edinburgh tomorrow in an attempt to compel Johnson to seek an extension to article 50, should no deal be agreed before 19 October. It could be another remarkable moment. This kind of expertise is also in stark contrast to Johnson’s circus antics and the last few years of rationality and common sense in Westminster being wilfully eroded and derided.

So it seems self-defeating, but not entirely surprising, that Cherry is billed as speaking at Saturday’s All Under One Banner rally straight after her legal triumph. The bill also includes Tommy Sheridan, notoriously convicted of perjury and who has been promoting the event on Sputnik TV. SNP women politicians and campaign group Women For Independence have spoken on several occasions about refusing to share a stage with Sheridan following the acrimonious row with a group of women in the now-split Scottish Socialist Party. We know dissuaded women voters are an important target group for the campaign.

No matter where you stand on the logistics of no-platforming, and certainly Cherry has the right to speak alongside whomever she chooses, the biggest names repeatedly appearing on these line-ups hark back to both unsavoury episodes in Scottish politics and yesterday’s has-beens, and anchors the argument with glaring lack of credibility. Responding to these