SNP’s EU scheming

THE SNP European Union love-in was always a curious affair.

Since the Brexit vote in June, Nicola Sturgeon has been desperate to talk of Scotland ‘being ripped from Europe against its will’.

Yet it was always clear from the number of Leave votes cast in Scotland – 1,018,322 – that a goodly number must have come from SNP members.

We know from former Cabinet Minister Alex Neil that several senior Nationalist MSPs also voted Leave. As the SNP is a party hell-bent on seizing Scottish sovereignty from Westminster, why would it hand it on to Brussels?

It falls to bellicose Alex Salmond to confirm what many have long suspected.

The former First Minister says that should a Holyrood vote against Brexit be ignored by Westminster, then the SNP will have no choice but to trigger Indyref 2.

So we can expect the Scottish Government to agitate for a Brexit deal for Scotland – it is due to publish proposals soon – that is simply not deliverable.

When the proposals are rejected, the SNP synthetic grievance machine will hit top gear and Nicola Sturgeon will declare that she must begin the process of another independence referendum.

Behind the scenes, the separatists will be cock-a-hoop – as this is exactly the scenario they wanted all along. The fly in the ointment of this strategy is that with the economy faltering, the NHS in crisis, justice a laughing stock, transport creaking and slipping education standards a national disgrace, the Nationalists cannot portray themselves as competent governors.

No wonder polls put support for their crackpot independence dream at its lowest level since the SNP was comprehensively beaten in 2014’s ‘once in a generation’ vote.

Having been on the losing side once, Mr Salmond of all people should know that calling an independence referendum is one thing – winning it quite another altogether.