Failedproject

You published on Thursday the most extraordinary tantrum by Nicola Sturgeon’s official spokesperson. With the clue in the name, I think we can be sure they reflected her own response to the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Scottish Government’s power to legislate for a referendum on independence. Let’s get a few things straight.

No-one forced Ms Sturgeon to resort to the Supreme Court. She sought their decision and they gave it.

The SNP petitioned the court to allow it to provide a written submission. It is the court’s response to that intervention that particularly riles Ms Sturgeon and her cohorts: that the Scottish Parliament does not have the authority to hold a referendum.

Several times in interviews before the election in 2021, Ms Sturgeon gave the assurance that voters should vote for the SNP even if they did not want a referendum. This turns out to have been a scam, with Ms Sturgeon and the SNP using the result of that vote as justification for seeking a referendum.

The separatist parties did not achieve a majority of votes at that election. The SNP can claim a majority at Holyrood only because the Green Party, which won no constituency seats – scarcely anyone voted for them – was awarded eight list seats under our flawed devolution dispensation.

As if it needed saying again: Holyrood has no locus in constitutional affairs. It is the (misconceived) creation of Westminster. Therefore it should have neither a Constitution Secretary nor the hundreds of millions of pounds that accompany that post.

Think of the amount of taxpayers' money that has been wasted on pursuing the nationalist cause. The 20 civil servants who have been beavering away, trying, in vain, to concoct a plausible economic and financial case for secession. The £20 million set aside for referendum preparations – now redundant – and the cost of the Constitution Secretary and his office and activities. Then there are the “foreign hubs” to promote Scottish separatism abroad.

How many Scottish children could be lifted out of poverty with the kind of sums that have been spent on a party political project that has failed? Perhaps Ms Sturgeon’s official spokesman could tell us that?

JILL STEPHENSON

Edinburgh