Serious setback for separatism dream

As the adage goes, a week in politics can seem like a lifetime. Just days ago, Alex salmond and his excitable followers were bullish after polls indicated they were narrowing the gap on the Better Together campaign.

But yesterday, Mr salmond’s separatist ambitions were left reeling by a series of political setbacks. First, two new opinion polls have shown the recent impetus gained by the Yes camp has faltered and gone into reverse. Then Treasury analysis of the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) data revealed an independent scotland would have the second largest fiscal deficit in the world. Another poll found scottish banks would have to leave an independent scotland or lose 42 per cent of their customers from other parts of the UK, at an estimated cost of almost £300billion.

To add to the Nationalists’ woes, the vice-president of the European Commission has confirmed an independent scotland would lose EU membership and would need to reapply for admission, requiring the unanimous support of the European Council and approval by the European Parliament. No wonder polling expert Professor John Curtice says Alex salmond will have to give ‘the speech of his life’ tomorrow at the sNP’s conference in Aberdeen. The l atest survation opinion poll showed support for separatism down two points in the past month, opening up a ten-point lead for the No vote, with women increasingly anti-independence.

This reversal of the recent surge in the Yes vote, relentlessly mounting evidence that independence would be economically disastrous, and the prospect of at least temporary exclusion from the EU, are serious setbacks for separatism.