Scotland an embarrassment to the notion of nationhood
IT’S hard to have sympathy for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, left, after this week’s UK Supreme Court decision which means only the Westminster parliament has the authority to allow another Scottish independence referendum.
Irish eyes can hardly be expected to smile on Scotland’s miserable and incessant whinging since they themselves decided to reject taking charge of their own affairs in the 2014 referendum.
It should be recalled how the Scots voted 55%-45% in favour of the union, which means they’ve only themselves to blame for still being at London’s beck and call.
That decision to stay inside the UK might tell us a range of things about Scotland’s national personality – but one is sure, it doesn’t suggest any real demand for taking back control of their own affairs, and doesn’t suggest the kind of confidence in their own abilities which is a precondition for independence.
It suggests a Scotland that, literally, doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going, a Scotland of unprincipled ditherers, a Scotland that craves for somebody else to tell them what to do, a Scotland that is nothing but an embarrassment whenever the notion of independent nationhood is considered.
The 2015 UK general election was the only time since that humiliating referendum result that Scotland indicated any real intention to reverse the 1707 union with England and Wales. On that occasion, Ms Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party came home with 50% support, up an incredible 30% in just five years.
But that was it, the high point. Ever since then the SNP has been stuck, with 45% of the vote in the 2019 general election and 47.7% in last year’s Scottish Parliament election. Demanding another independence referendum with that kind of backing is, frankly, ridiculously self-maiming and acts only to devalue the SNP’s political currency when at least 55%60% support would be a minimum to force the hand of their bosses in London.
Nicola Sturgeon’s case before the UK Supreme Court that Scotland had the right to plough ahead with an independence referendum was a legal absurdity. The court’s decision made that clear.
And now it has backfired. The decision makes it clear that London is running the show and will continue to do so until enough Scots opt for control over domination.