Indyref 2? We’ve all got more to fret about
IDON’T know if you’ve noticed, but a certain assumption has taken hold in Scottish public life lately. It’s insidious, it’s deliberate, and I’ve had quite enough of it thank you very much.
That assumption of course, is that there will be another independence referendum. Says who? Nicola Sturgeon? She’s been saying that since the sun came up on September 19, 2014.
Yet the uniformity of the assumption is extraordinary. From politicians to commentators to Mrs McGlinchy at Number 42 it’s no longer if, it’s when.
Well, for me it’s neither. Because I just can’t. Not yet, anyway. Right now I’d rather tear off my own head and eat it than go through all that again.
I can’t be alone in this. I can’t be the only one who thinks that another referendum will be like those extra ten laps the PE teacher always made you do at school: pointless, painful, and bone-achingly repetitive.
The same tired arguments. The same whey-faced politicians banging the same old drums. The flag-waving. The tub-thumping. Those infernal Yes2 car stickers and Alex Salmond on every Sunday morning political programme wittering on about Brexit while wearing a tie covered in tiny little Saltires. Just the thought makes me queasy.
How refreshing it was, then, yesterday to hear Theresa May refute the assumption that a second independence referendum is a slam dunk. To accuse the SNP of relentless ‘tunnel vision’ over independence (correct), while singing the praises of a Union she says she is determined to strengthen and sustain (hurrah).
So I am sitting quietly, hoping I won’t have to care again, that I won’t have to waste entire dinner parties discussing the Barnett formula, or weekends arguing over the economic merits of the Scottish groat.
Because the last time round, I really did care. I cared so much in 2014 that I – as regular readers of this column will no doubt be aware – couldn’t stop writing about it. As with many millions of Scots I became invested, worried and excited. I voted with my heart in my mouth. And when the result was a definitive and resounding No, I carried on with my life.
And so while I can hear the engines revving at Holyrood, and shots on both sides being fired – Sadiq Khan’s tone-deaf comment about all Scottish nationalists being racists (they’re not, to say so is both untrue and irresponsibly provocative) springs to mind – I am doing my best to shut it all out.
Because the assumption that a second referendum is a given is a dangerous and divisive one that is doing nothing good for the public life of this country – which is for most people about jobs and schools, paying the mortgage, hospital appointments and the general going on-ness of things.
These are the things we care about all the time. Every single one of our politicians would do well to remember that.
If a referendum is called then we shall all, I suspect, limber up. But until then, you’ll find me in the corner, with my fingers in my ears.