Hilarious... like a scene straight from Spinal Tap!

ONE of the most hilarious scenes in the classic comedy This Is Spinal Tap, about a heavy metal band on the road, sees guitarist Nigel Tufnel show off his specially made amplifiers. Unlike standard models that go up to ten, his go up to 11. They are ‘one louder’. Asked why he doesn’t just make ten louder, he looks confused. ‘These go to 11,’ he repeats.

His words came to mind while reading the SNP’s 11-point plan – penned by Constitution Secretary Mike Russell – to hold a second independence referendum.

Not for Mr Russell the tiresome convention of a ten-point plan. His plan goes up to 11.

Before we get into the substance of Mr Russell’s proposals, let’s remember that, here in the real world, the power to run a referendum on the constitutional question resides with the UK Government.

The vote in 2014 was possible only because David Cameron gave it the go-ahead, using Section 30 of the Scotland Act, which allows a Prime Minister to temporarily transfer powers from Westminster to Holyrood.

That power now resides with the current PM, Boris Johnson.

But in Mr Russell’s world, the Scotland Act is a tiresome detail to be ignored. In his grandly entitled document, ‘The road to a referendum that is beyond legal challenge’, he makes a number of assertions that might charitably be described as ‘creative’.

After a series of points in which he reminds us that the SNP is in favour of independence, Mr Russell gets down to business.

Point eight of his plan is that, should the SNP win the Holyrood elections in May, the Nationalists will ask the UK Government for a Section 30 order, ‘believing and publicly contending that in such circumstances, there could be no moral or democratic justification for denying that request’.

If, he goes on, the UK Government were to refuse, its position would be ‘unsustainable both at home and abroad’.

It is not entirely clear why a decision of the UK Government to exercise its democratic, legally enshrined right to rule on whether another constitutional vote should take place would be of interest to people in other nations, but Mr Russell has never been short of ego. He’s more puffed-up than the Michelin Man.

Anyway, the SNP’s president goes on, it won’t matter what the UK Government says, because an victory will be seen by the Nationalists as a green light to proceed.

The UK Government will have three choices, writes Russell.

It could agree that the Scottish parliament already holds the power to legislate for a referendum, it could agree a Section 30 order, or it could take legal action to dispute the legal basis and ‘seek to block the will of the Scottish people in the courts’.

This is incoherent stuff. Why would Mr Russell demand a Section 30 order if, as he seems to be asserting, it is not necessary?

This 11-point plan is a hastily cobbled together document designed to placate a section of the SNP membership.

Most voters, trying to cope with the pressure of the pandemic, think the constitutional question is a distraction, not a priority.

If the SNP goes into May’s election promising a vote for the party will mean a referendum within months, many will think twice about backing the Nationalists.