A signal defeat in a British court for Sturgeon

There’s no doubt about the fact that the British Government was on its best behaviour yesterday in response to the Supreme Court’s unanimous and ultra-speedy decision not to allow Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to hold another independence referendum next year.

The word had clearly gone out from “mission control” that there was to be no gloating at the discomfiture of the SNP. Ministers were not to be seen smirking or rejoicing that the justices had ruled as illegal the First Minister’s planned indyref2 because she hadn’t got the necessary permission from Downing Street and Westminster.

As a result, we had earnest statements from Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, and Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, both sounding serious and almost apologetic, that in the aftermath of this expected, but still severe, reverse they looked forward to working with Sturgeon’s Scottish Government for the betterment of Scotland. Labour’s Ian Murray, a veteran fighter against the nationalists, swore he had no intention of gloating.

There was far too much magnanimity, in this observer’s view. The average Scottish voter is fed up with Sturgeon’s manoeuvrings to circumvent the law of the land and achieve her two most important objectives: the maintenance of her leadership of the SNP and, oh yes, Scottish independence.

Furthermore, I’m sure I’m not the only Unionist who thinks that there’s nothing we need to apologise for and, indeed, to paraphrase Winston Churchill’s famous exhortation to the British public on VE Day, we may surely permit ourselves a brief period of gloating over this day of days.

There was much beating of breasts among the separatist community over this signal defeat, with the mass of activists taking to the streets in protest rallies, including outside the Scottish Parliament. But many nationalists saved their ire for

Sturgeon, with most deploring her tactics and Kenny Macaskill, the former justice minister, accusing her of taking the “wrong question to the wrong court”.

Thanks to her much-derided plan to use the next general election as a de facto referendum on independence, it must be increasingly obvious to even the most dyed-in-the-wool nationalist that she’s led them up a blind alley on independence.

Her parliamentary troops at Westminster and Holyrood are fractious over policies as diverse as the trans issue and a collapsing health service but now she’s called a special party conference in the New Year to find a way out of a constitutional morass of her making.

Such loyalists as are left in the party hierarchy are seeking to depict the Supreme Court decision as an end to the principle that the United Kingdom is a voluntary union of equals and that somehow Scotland has become a captive of England. That’s a nonsense – the justices were interpreting the law of the land, namely the 1998 Scotland Act that gave birth to devolution and the Scottish Parliament.

Sturgeon’s plan to manipulate a general election for her own ends, by demanding voters consider only the question of Scottish independence, is complicated. Why would they obey? Won’t they want answers on issues more important to them than saving her face – like inflation, fuel costs, hospital waiting lists and education?

The natural instinct of Scottish nationalists is to blame the English – in this case a court based in London, dispensing what they’ll claim is English justice. Unfortunately for this bogus allegation, the Supreme Court is a British institution with two Scottish justices at its head.

They reached their verdict on strict legal grounds but they’ve done Scotland, never mind the Union, a favour nevertheless – for the moment at least.

To paraphrase Churchill, we may permit ourselves a brief period of gloating over this day of days