Sturgeon is the backstop of all backstops in fight for Union
WE crave certainties in an uncertain world. Things we can hold on to, rely on, yet they seem so hard to find. Theresa May’s handling of our Brexit negotiations means the future of our relationship with Europe changes day by day, sometimes hour by hour.
Food shortages are threatened, drugs droughts and even the need for martial law. Businesses demand clarity whatever the outcome of Brexit talks, yet struggle to find it.
But if you do want certainty, I would suggest our own Nicola Sturgeon might provide it. While she remains First Minister, there is no chance of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom. She is the backstop of backstops.
Think about it. Scotland voting to stay in the EU while the rest of the UK voted to leave should have been a gift for Nationalists. Yet three years on, the polls have barely moved in a separatist direction.
Miss Sturgeon may have railed against Scotland being removed ‘kicking and screaming’ from the EU, yet as she screams there must be a fear at SNP HQ that she could face her own kicking at the polls.
When the SNP first won in 2007, Alex Salmond did all he could to woo the middle class that doubted him. Bridge tolls were scrapped, prescription charges abolished and university became free. He enjoyed a landslide in 2011.
MISS Sturgeon has a different attitude to the middle classes. To her, they are cash cows – although she doesn’t seem to know what to do with their cash. Scots, other than those on the lowest incomes, pay more income tax than in any other part of the UK.
Miss Sturgeon starves councils of resources, cutting services for the poorest, then allows council tax rises that hit the middle class most but don’t make up the shortfall. Now workers might even have to pay tax for the privilege of parking at their work.
It is claimed the late Tory leader David McLetchie said Alex Salmond’s first term was the next best thing to a Tory administration. Many voters disliked his constitutional views, but liked the tax cuts and the freebies.
Miss Sturgeon takes a different view. She taxes Scots more than the rest of the UK while schools, hospitals and most public services decline more rapidly than in the rest of the country.
Whatever she is doing, it is not preparing Scotland to become a separate state.
Her electoral strategy seems baffling until you realise how breathtakingly arrogant it is.
She clearly believes she is untouchable, betting that Labour is incapable of a comeback and the Tories have an electoral ceiling they cannot break through. She doesn’t believe she can lose.
Perhaps she is right. The SNP regularly enjoys a 40 per cent rating to the Tories’ 25 per cent.
Yet the Tories are still as high as 25 per cent, despite Theresa May’s handling of Brexit and the absence of Ruth Davidson on maternity leave.
Miss Sturgeon’s arrogance extends to her colleagues, from whom she appears distant and cold. It is reported that some even refer to her as Lady Macbeth. This is unfair. Shakespeare’s character has warmth.
Our First Minister complains that Scotland’s concerns, in the shape of her, are ignored by Westminster. Yet when she is invited to Cabinet talks, she declines and sends Mike Russell instead.
It is difficult to work out what the First Minister actually does all day, other than offer to speak for the nation on the nightly news every time a Scottish celebrity dies.
NICOLA Sturgeon does not want to call Indyref 2 in the next few weeks. You could say the time is not right because of Brexit – which has a degree of truth. You could say it is because Westminster would not allow another referendum, which is also true – though she might hide behind that.
But the real reason the First Minister does not want one is because she knows she would lose it. Even in the midst of a chaotic Brexit, she has not made the case for independence nor done anything to prepare the nation to leave the UK.
In politics, there are two things you need to succeed. A plan and charisma. You can get away without one, but not both.
Nicola Sturgeon has neither and that means as long as she is in Bute House the Union is safe, even if Scotland is not.