THE gang was back together yesterday as No campaign figureheads Michael Gove, Alistair Darling, Jim Murphy and Ruth Davidson shared a platform at a pro-Union summit.
The four were among the speakers at a conference in London on the
future of the Union, organised by the Policy Exchange think tank, with
Davidson using the event to urge
Theresa May to oppose a new Scottish independence referendum.
During the day, former Scottish Labour leader Murphy referenced his 2014 tour when, atop an Irn-Bru crate, he urged voters to back the
status quo in that year’s vote.
Former chancellor Darling insisted there will not be another vote in the “near future” – “possibly not” within his lifetime – because Scots do not want it.
Davidson, meanwhile, said she would “happily never fight another referendum” and accused the SNP of trying to “weaponise” Brexit in order to achieve its independence goal.
The event was held the day after
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
announced plans to renew the case for independence with a debate
centred on “ambition and hope”, as it emerged the SNP’s long-awaited Growth Commission report is likely to be published on Friday.
The event, which saw the former Better Together figures speak at length about independence, also followed the Scottish Tories releasing a video in the morning responding to those plans, saying to "Give it a rest, Nicola".
The Prime Minister last year rejected the idea of a second independence referendum while Brexit is taking place.
Scottish Tory leader Davidson called on May to maintain that
position, saying: “My advice to the Prime Minister is that if the question is the same, the answer should be
the same.”
Davidson went on: “All the
evidence shows most Scots don’t want to go back to yet more constitutional division. They just want the UK state to act in a manner that respects their interests and seeks to make life better for us all.
“We have delivered a better system of devolution. Now the challenge is to deliver a better Union too. If we do that, I’m confident that we can see off separation, we can meet the
aspirations of people who don’t
currently see their future in the UK, and we can build a stronger nation for all.”
Last week Labour, Green and LibDem MSPs backed the SNP-led
Scottish Government in voting to refuse consent to the Tory Government’s Brexit Withdrawal Bill.
After yesterday’s summit, the SNP’s
deputy Westminster leader, Kirsty Blackman, said Davidson “has her head firmly in the sand”.
The Aberdeen North MP said: “All the other parties in the Scottish
Parliament have united to oppose the Tories. At every opportunity, she
[Davidson] has let her Westminster bosses call the shots, as they try to force through the most damaging Brexit possible against Scotland’s democratic will.
“And while the anti-independence politicians are reduced to arguing with each other about how to mitigate the immense economic damage that Brexit will cause, independence supporters are having a debate about the immense economic opportunities and hope that independence offers.
The contrast could not be starker.”
Earlier in the day, Gove argued that the Leave result in the EU referendum had made the UK “more
welcoming” to migrants.
The claim comes despite the recent Windrush scandal and the row over visas for highly-skilled migrants.
Gove, who is from Aberdeen,
also claimed the Brexit vote had dealt a blow to “identity politics” which he said has been promoted by parties like the SNP and Ukip.
The prominent Brexiteer said this could be seen in an insistence
“that an individual should check their privilege before speaking and pipe down if they don’t want to fit in or avoid cultural appropriation” from the left of politics.
Gove also voiced concern about identity politics on the right, but insisted Leave voters were not “identitarians”, stating: “The identitarians want to move away from the liberal
principles of equal
treatment for all, colour blindness and respect for individual rights.
“Instead they embrace
a politics which divides
society in contending groups and demands people
define themselves by their group membership rather than as autonomous individuals.”
Gove further argued that Unionism offers a “warm home” to people from “distinct and diverse” backgrounds and, in contrast, accused the SNP of an nationalistic approach that “conflates truly progressive politics with superior virtue that can apparently only really come from living north of the Border”.
Arlene Foster, leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, gave a vivid account of the roots of her own political position, telling the audience about her police
officer father: “I remember my father crawling into our kitchen with the blood streaming from
his head.
“I didn’t fully understand the
Troubles at that time but I realised that the enemies of the Union had tried to kill my dad. A moment like that often has the capacity to shape a child’s thinking growing up.
“Like thousands and thousands and thousands of people across Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I was determined that no bullet or bomb would dampen our loyalty, our Unionism or our Britishness.”
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