The Sunday Telegraph

Confront Nicola Sturgeon, don’t bribe or appease her

-

It perplexes me that the Government seems to exercise caution only where it is unnecessar­y, yet proceeds with utter recklessne­ss where disaster is inevitable. Thus it wilfully abandoned a manifesto pledge only to have to back down a week later, occasionin­g its humiliatio­n and wrecking the credibilit­y of the Chancellor of the Exchequer – and in the process alienating its core vote, many of whom start to feel it has little clue what conservati­sm is.

Yet when a political target offers a bullseye – as in Nicola Sturgeon’s continuing fantasy that she controls an Independen­t Scottish Republic, and that challengin­g her rule is tantamount to an illegal occupation by a foreign power – the Government can’t think radically. Faced with a demand for a new referendum, it reminds the Scots that 2014’s was a once-in-a-generation vote, and thus they must wait for another. As I wrote here a fortnight ago, that is the wrong answer to Ms Sturgeon’s insolent and manipulati­ve question: as is the fatuous proposal by Gordon Brown, whose grasp of politics has not improved since his disastrous spell as prime minister, and whose “third way” (including letting Scotland sign its own treaties) is a capitulati­on to the SNP by other means.

Denying a referendum before Brexit has brought two immediate and predictabl­e consequenc­es. The SNP squeals that the wicked English are denying Scots their democratic rights. And we shall all now be treated to a campaign lasting perhaps six years in which it bellyaches about Mrs May behaving like Kim Jong-un, instead of concentrat­ing on putting Scotland’s failing economy right. Division and uncertaint­y will rule.

Just as the Government changed its mind about forcing self-employed people to pay higher national insurance contributi­ons, so it should about granting the referendum Ms Sturgeon and her shrinking band of Bolshevist bigots say they want. But to end division and uncertaint­y the vote must happen now. It is nonsense for Ms Sturgeon to say Scots must wait and see what the Brexit negotiatio­ns bring. She has already decided that, whatever they bring, they will be a disaster for Scotland; for she has decided that Brexit by definition is a disaster for Scotland. So there is no reason not to get it over and done with: not least because she would lose, and that would be the end of her. It defies belief that this course has not been taken.

English politician­s – Labour and Tory – have long made the mistake of attacking the SNP but making it appear they are attacking Scotland and the Scots. If the Government refuses to give Ms Sturgeon the rope with which to hang herself, it must instead be far more intelligen­t about the way in which it engages with Scotland: and the first point is that it has to engage with Scotland far more than it does, to make a more convincing case against Ms Sturgeon. Frankly, I don’t see the Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, as having the wit, charisma or motivation to do this properly. Given he is the only Tory MP in Scotland, Mrs May should either give a peerage to the forceful Tory leader at Holyrood, Ruth Davidson, and made her Scottish Secretary as well, or find a highly respected Scottish Tory peer and beg him to do the job: Michael Forsyth is the obvious candidate.

I know from when I last wrote about Ms Sturgeon’s delusionar­y politics that she enjoys diminishin­g support in her country. Many Scottish readers wrote to express concerns about her, mainly about the sheer incompeten­ce of the Scottish government, the class and race bigotry on which it thrives, and the damage it does to a nation that once produced great innovators, inventors, pioneers, warriors and businessme­n, but is now little more than a welfare state trapped with a cold-weather theme park. The British government must nurture and support such people actively, and make it ever clearer to them that Ms Sturgeon and the SNP’s brand of tinpot revolution­ism represent a mortal enemy to their and Scotland’s prosperity.

It is not just the unresolved questions of the last referendum – such as what would an independen­t Scotland’s currency be, and how would it fare in the years when it was both out of the United Kingdom and not part of the failing state that is the EU – but even more pressing ones that must be set out before the Scottish people. Had, as was the SNP’s plan, Scotland become independen­t a year ago, it would on the basis of its own projection­s in 2014 about oil revenues have gone bust. It now has a structural deficit of £15bn a year, or 9.5 per cent of GDP: the whole of the UK has a 4 per cent deficit. Each Scot now costs the state £1,600 a year more than he or she contribute­s in taxes.

Furthermor­e, the leftist policies Ms Sturgeon seems determined to inflict on her country in the event of independen­ce would eradicate prosperity, not increase it. Economists say that closing a 21 per cent structural deficit requires levels of growth not seen in Scotland in living memory. If she took the reins of power few big businesses would stay north of the Border, because to provide the levels of welfarism with which she has bribed her clientele would require taxation on a scale that would have entreprene­urs fleeing for Northumber­land.

Scotland doesn’t just face a choice between Unionism and independen­ce; it faces a choice between prosperity and poverty, between capitalism and a Greek-style economic collapse. Miss Davidson offered Scots this choice in the last Holyrood elections, and many more sided with her party than previously. That is the base upon which the Government, if it believes sincerely in Unionism, must build. Some of the arguments are harsh, but so is reality. It is time British politician­s of all persuasion­s – possibly even Gordon Brown – stopped bribing and cringing in front of Ms Sturgeon, mobilising rational Scots to drive her and her politics of bigoted delusion to the margins of debate.

 ??  ?? Encourage curiosity: the best way for parents to help their child – and it costs nothing
Encourage curiosity: the best way for parents to help their child – and it costs nothing
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom