Scottish democracy ignored as English football results become headline news

The problem is London. In London, the words “Britain” and “England” are interchangeable. London is the capital of Britain. London is the capital of England. But if England had its own devolved parliament based in its own capital, and the capital of the Democratic Federation of Britain was moved to the Isle of Man (where it would be more or less equidistant from the shores of the four nations), then the nature of the particular democracy in each of the four nations could be determined by the people of each of the four nations.

It will never happen, of course, because London won’t allow it, and London pulls all democracy’s strings, and the nature of that species of democracy is English, not British.

Certainly not Scottish.

If you would like a particularly potent symptom of the phenomenon, how else might we account for the fact that the lead story on the BBC’S News at Ten on Friday evening was England’s nil-nil draw with the United States of America in the World Cup?

Not only was that editorial decision excruciatingly Anglophile, the fact that the News at Ten is broadcast throughout Britain whether you like it or not also meant that it carried a whiff of contempt to those parts of Britain where the English football team is not idolised.

And this isn’t about the players. If Harry Kane had a Scottish granny, I would pick him.

It’s about a London mindset that runs Britain and its institutions as if Britain were England, and England Britain.

And while we’re at it, putting two and two together and coming up with rather more than the sum of the parts, there was widespread suspicion between the Mull of Galloway and Muckle Flugga that London society at the very least was making a point about Scotland’s lowly place in the democratic hierarchy a couple of days after the Supreme Court had pronounced on the question of the right to hold an independence referendum.

Perish the thought that there had been political input at the BBC. It couldn’t happen, could it?

Now consider another bizarre notion. If the already conspicuous trickle of Tory MPS queuing up to leave at the next election becomes a cataract, a flood perhaps, and out of the ashes of this dire government a new movement of English nationalism were to take root, and if that movement were to gain enough political clout to campaign for an independence

referendum for England, what do you think the Supreme Court would say then?

I know, too bizarre for word. And yet the Shakespearean tragedy that is Westminster today has its origins in a Brexit referendum which David Cameron could have chosen to ignore or even to decline but chose not to in order to mollify the Farage tendency that lurked deep in the murkiest depths of the Conservative right.

Having wrought havoc and succeeded in its solitary destructive ambition, that tendency slunk back under the stones from which it had emerged.

Job done.

Yet Mr Cameron had told Scotland that if it truly wanted to stay in Europe it should vote Conservative. Behold, London democracy in action in Scotland.

Our 21st-century Scotland routinely returns Holyrood governments committed to independence as a first principle, to which London democracy turns a blind eye, because that is easier than looking it in the eye and trying to understand why Scotland’s democratic undercurrent is so

focused on independence, why it grows more intense, and why our dissatisfaction with the status quo is no longer acceptable.

This river of dissent will only flow one way, for such is the nature of rivers. It widens and deepens as it heads towards the open, unimpeded oceanic future.

And every time Westminster politics heaps bile on Nicola Sturgeon and her political philosophy, it heaps bile on those of us who sustain her philosophy at the ballot box, which means a substantial majority of all those of us who vote.

And a law that puts Scottish democracy into the hands of London rubs salt into a widening wound. Whatever happened to a partnership of equals? Whatever happened to levelling up?

Is there no one in the London government who thinks that opening a serious, thoughtful conversation with the Edinburgh government might just be a more principled approach?

And while they are at it, they could do worse than to open a dialogue with the Isle of Man to see how it feels about becoming

the seat of government for all the nations of Britain.

Remember you read it here first.

As for England’s progress at the World Cup, every kick of every match is on live TV, complete with hyperbolic commentary and analysis by more pundits than you can shake a stick at.

When it comes to the national news, it belongs in the wee bit at the end before the weather.

There are plenty of news stories coming out of Qatar.

Nil-nil against the USA isn’t one of them.

It’s about a mindset that runs Britain as if Britain was England

WHIFF OF CONTEMPT: London society seems to have been making a point about Scotland’s lowly place in the democratic hierarchy.

SUPPORT: An independence rally in Perth after the court ruling. Picture by Steve Brown.