Time to stop banging the independence drum
GENERALLY, devolution is a good thing. It takes power away from civil servants in Whitehall and enables services to be run locally by those who have greater knowledge of a particular area. Devolution movements used to be strong in both Scotland and Wales, individual countries wanting to establish their identities. And after referenda in 1979 failed to gain the necessary majorities to bring about Assemblies, subsequent votes in the early years of the Blair Government led to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, the latter eventually becoming a Parliament.
This though has not been enough for the Scottish National Party (SNP), who want complete independence. Indeed, they’ve become the ruling party in Scotland, also holding most of the Scottish seats in the Commons.
Now I can understand why many turned to the SNP during the Thatcher/Major Government, when people felt an independent Scotland would remove them from Tory rule. No more would they be used as a testing ground for policies such as the hated Poll Tax.
But in 2014 independence was defeated by a clear majority of voters. Then two years later Scotland wanted Britain to stay in the EU while the English backed Brexit, the latter winning the day through sheer weight of numbers. Since then, the SNP’s stance has been wanting an independent Scotland to re-join the European Union. Yet why should they want to tie themselves to the Brussles’ bureaucracy, but not be part of a nation that shares a common language and history? Besides, there have been times when a UK-wide policy makes more sense than Scotland being allowed to go it alone. We saw that during the Covid pandemic when at one stage people travelling by train had to put on a hated face mask once they reached the Scottish border. As if Covid respected national boundaries!
Given that North Sea oil isn’t the money spinner it once was, I think it’d make more sense for Nicola Sturgeon to get to grips with the real problems Scotland is facing, rather than to keep banging the independence drum.
Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.