Foolish to vote again, and so say all of us

HOW marvellous amid all the tribal sound and fury, claim and counterclaim, to hear a calm and reasoned voice say to politicians: ‘Enough.’

Businessman and entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter speaks for a great many Scots outside the Holyrood/Westminster bubble when he says it would be ‘foolhardy’ to embark on another independence referendum.

‘There’s enough uncertainty for us all to deal with. I can’t quite understand why the Government wants to take us out of the one union which is our biggest trading union, but keep us in another one.’ Amen to that eminently sensible take.

But will politicians, preternaturally fond of the sound of their own voices, listen? The omens are not good.

Even before the Brexit vote of June 23, the Nationalists were desperately agitating for an excuse to reopen old wounds and usurp the decisive – and ‘once in lifetime’ – independence referendum.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon set the tone early. In March, she was asked what would happen should Brexit occur. ‘I think, such would be the outrage, there would be increasing demand for independence.’

Scots were as shell-shocked as anyone when the Leave result, very much against all the polls and predictions, was confirmed. It cost David Cameron the keys of 10 Downing Street, but Scotland did not rise as one and demand we break from the Union.

For the truth is that very many Scots voted for Leave and many of them were among Miss Sturgeon’s supporters.

But nothing daunted, on she pressed. Brexit ‘is a significant and material change in circumstances – and it is therefore a statement of the obvious that the option of a second referendum must be on the table. And it is on the table.’

It sits less on the table than under it, like a bomb in a Hitchcock movie which the camera flashes to time and again as the tension reaches fever pitch.

Alex Salmond is beside himself wanting to light the fuse. He has tried every trick, sometimes looking like he is trying to bounce his former protege into acting his way.

He has tried to rubbish figures that show a go-it-alone Scotland would face a ruinous £15billion deficit. He has told anyone who will listen what Miss Sturgeon’s ‘red lines’ on Brexit are (yet she herself has said ‘I’ve been very, very adamant about not using the terminology “red lines”).’

He blithely says Europe would support a custom-built deal for Scotland when Spain has, outright, rejected the idea.

Meanwhile, Miss Sturgeon seems to want to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, no doubt a reflection of the tensions within her party.

To the independence zealots, she nods and winks about ‘a window of opportunity between now and Article 50 being triggered’. But her hand is stayed by wiser voices than Mr Salmond’s, who point to polls showing support of independence and even the appetite to discuss it is at its lowest level since the 2014 vote.

Lately Miss Sturgeon talked of seeking common ground with Theresa May over Brexit negotiations. That chimes with Sir Tom’s call to seek stability, not more turbulence.

Brexit is a hugely complex issue throwing potential pitfalls but a great many opportunities. But the risks of an independence referendum are all too clear, the issue having been well-rehearsed in the years leading to the 2014 vote.

If anything, the Nationalist position now is weaker than then, not least with oil no longer the fountain of wealth it once was.

Miss Sturgeon has two choices. As SNP leader, she may lean towards the hotheads and Salmonds who are happy for the rest of us to pay any price for the flag of independence and not much else.

But as a First Minister with the best interest of Scotland in broader terms in mind, she should side with Sir Tom and park the independence agitation.

In that spirit of hope, we wish every one of our readers a Happy Christmas.