SNP laid groundwork for failure of independence referendum court bid

Sir, – It should come as no surprise the Supreme Court ruled against the ill-fated attempt of the SNP to hold another independence referendum.

I submit that it was certainly no surprise to Nicola Sturgeon and her team who orchestrated this from the start.

Going back in time when this was first mooted, the SNP were well aware they were on shaky ground if this reached the Supreme Court. They were told by none other than the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, the top law officer for Scotland, that she, and I quote, “did not have the necessary degree of confidence” in their case. In other words – no chance.

In keeping with SNP doctrine, the first minister totally ignored this advice and instructed the lord advocate to proceed knowing full well the consequences would be failure. At the same time, even before the case reached the Supreme Court, the SNP started to lay the groundwork for this negative result with their illegal de facto referendum at the next general election.

Inevitably, like it or not, the judges unanimously came to the only decision they could in upholding the rule of law and applying the 1998 Scotland Act.

What a criminal waste of time, effort and money that should have been spent running this country.

When the result was known the SNP machine went into action and there is no way this can be regarded as spontaneous. This had all the hallmarks of advance planning.

They were off and running with their protest rallies and the first minister no doubt had her speeches well prepared and ready to go in my view. We then got the customary outrage and democracy denial of our rights.

This was followed by the usual display of grievances because that is the way the

SNP work playing to the diehard support but it is not them you have to convince.

This charade does nothing whatsoever to persuade the silent majority to the SNP cause. None other than Jim Sillars, former SNP deputy leader, was highly critical of the SNP decision-making on this issue and laid the blame squarely at the first minister’s door. He stated if the SNP want to change hearts and minds of the No voters and the undecided, they have to build a convincing case for support instead of the grudge and grievance route which is going nowhere.

Also, turning the Supreme

Court ruling into a war game is a classic way of having the opposite effect of what the SNP were trying to achieve and no amount of rhetoric from them will change that.

From another legal aspect, the de facto route was met with derision from the first minister’s former law professor, Alistair Bonnington.

He lamented his ex-student’s “failure to grasp what democracy actually means”.

He also stated that the first minister’s attempt to restrict the election to the single issue of breaking up the UK does not “deserve a moment’s consideration” and “flies in the face of democratic elections”.

I can only assume the first minister must have missed that lecture or has no memory of it – where have we heard that before?

One final point for Nicola Sturgeon. She stated the “voice of Scotland will not be silenced despite the Supreme Court ruling”.

She is under the false impression she speaks for Scotland and that is certainly not the case.

So, the next time she speaks she should be reminded she speaks for the SNP, not Scotland.