Display of petulance shames the SNP

THE more shrill the SNP becomes over Brexit, the less convincing its argument.

Setting aside for now the dichotomy that this is a party that wants to wrest sovereignty from Westminster only to hand it to Brussels, its economic case is shaky in the extreme.

Figures out yesterday show Scottish exports to the rest of the UK are worth four times more than those destined for Europe.

Exports to England, Wales and Northern Ireland generated £49.8billion for the Scottish economy in 2015, while sales to the EU totalled £12.3billion.

In the past 15 years, exports to the rest of the UK have soared by 74 per cent, compared to a 7.8 per cent rise for the EU over the same period.

It is clear that the market we need to concentrate on is the one with our fellow members of the UK, not the single European market.

And as John MacLeod argues forcefully elsewhere on this page, the SNP’s faux outrage over the Sewel Convention is not driving the public to the cause of separation.

The Nationalists were convinced that the Convention, under which the UK Parliament seeks the consent of Holyrood before legislating on devolved matters, would let them put a spanner in the Brexit works. But the Supreme Court’s 11 judges decided unanimously that while Westminster must be accorded a say on the triggering of Brexit, Holyrood need not be consulted.

That left SNP ‘Brexit minister’ Mike Russell impotently fuming yesterday, telling Holyrood that this supposed betrayal strengthens the argument for separation.

Nice try, Mike, but no one is convinced. Scots will not be taking to the streets with ‘Enshrine Sewel in law now!’ placards.

Support for Yes is not going to be lifted from the doldrums of the 2014 independence defeat by this attempt to synthesise grievance.

The SNP should stop the pointless moaning in Holyrood; cancel childish amendments in Westminster to an Article 50 Bill its MPs have already declared they will vote – in one unthinking bloc – against.

Instead they should row in behind Prime Minister Theresa May’s fight to secure the best Brexit deal for Britain as a whole.