Angry Davidson warns new indy poll would a disastrous return to ‘division, pain and fear’
RUTH Davidson yesterday warned First Minister Nicola Sturgeon against dragging Scotland back to the ‘division, pain and fear’ that gripped the country ahead of the 2014 referendum.
Another vote will hold Scotland back and threaten the nation’s ambitions and hopes, the Scottish Tory leader told a party convention in Perth yesterday.
But Liberal Democrats warned the Nationalists will succeed in breaking up Britain if opposition to independence is left solely to the Tories.
The parties were reacting to Miss Sturgeon’s launch on Friday of a three-month ‘listening’ campaign which could lead to another referendum as early as next year.
Launching her latest independence drive in Stirling, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We want to understand in detail how people feel about Europe, Brexit and independence. We want to know the concerns people have and the questions they want answered. We want to build, if we can, a consensus on the way ahead.’
But this flies in the face of the SNP promise that the 2014 vote was a ‘once in a generation’ event, and the First Minister saying a surge in support for independence would be needed for a rerun.
That has failed to materialise, with polls showing that a majority of Scots still support the Union and that backing for another referendum is low, even after June’s Brexit
‘Don’t put our country through it again’
vote. Businesses have also warned against creating further uncertainty at a time when growth and employment are lower in Scotland than the UK as a whole, and the oil price crash has blown a £15 billion black hole in the nation’s finances.
Miss Davidson said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday she wants to listen to people who voted No in the hope of meeting their concerns. Well, let me tell her how many of us feel. We do not look back at the referendum on independence with much in the way of nostalgia. It wasn’t “civic” or “joyous” as the SNP have claimed.
‘Instead, we remember the division it caused, we remember the pain felt by many and we remember the fear that our country was about to be split up. And we don’t want to put our country through it all again. So if the First Minister wants to know the feelings of thousands of Scots across the country – I can give it to her right now.
‘It is anger at an SNP Government which has both broken its word and decided to put its own narrow political interests before those of the wider country.
‘And it is frustration that we have a Nationalist administration which is acting like a drag on Scotland’s progress.’
On Friday the First Minister also announced a new Growth Commission, chaired by the lobbyist and former Nationalist MSP Andrew Wilson, to try to tackle the huge gulf between spending and tax receipts north of the Border.
She must also find more convincing answers on an independent Scotland’s currency than her predecessor Alex Salmond delivered in 2014.
Professor Joseph Stiglitz, one of the Scottish Government’s own economic advisers, has admitted that persistently arguing that an independent Scotland would share the pound with the UK – even after Westminster ruled it out – was a ‘mistake’.
But Unionists also face huge challenges ahead of another independence battle. After the SNP convincingly won both the general and Scottish elections north of the Border, many of the Labour and Lib Dem politicians who led Better Together have been kicked out of politics.
With many in Labour now reluctant to enter another cross-party alliance, it raises the prospect of a straight fight between Miss Davidson’s Tories and Miss Sturgeon’s Nationalists. But Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie warned: ‘Make no mistake, if we leave the campaign for Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom to the Conservatives it will fail.
‘We need progressive, moderate, optimistic, hopeful voices that advance a “no borders” approach in relation to the UK and Europe.
‘The current Labour Party shows little sign of providing that voice, so Liberal Democrats must speak up.’
Meanwhile, the SNP insisted that it was the Brexit vote which was damaging the country. South Scotland SNP list MSP Joan McAlpine said: ‘Despite Theresa May’s countryside retreat this week, we remain none the wiser as to what “Brexit means Brexit” actually means – and as the weeks and months go by that is an increasingly unacceptable and irresponsible position.
‘Businesses across Scotland are concerned that leaving the EU will push up costs, hit consumer confidence and limit access to skilled workers – with some putting recruit-
ment plans on hold or even considering relocation. It’s bad enough to attempt to drag Scotland out of the EU against our will – but doing so without even the basics of a plan of what a Brexit will look like is just complete incompetence.’
A Scottish Labour spokesman last night poured scorn on the independence debate, saying: ‘The only party more obsessed with independence than the SNP are the Tories.
‘Kezia Dugdale has outlined plans to use the new powers of the Scottish parliament to invest in education, stop the cuts to our NHS, create more jobs and ban fracking – whilst the other party leaders are still banging on about independence.’