Why Scotland’s Super Six have given us a new exit strategy

So, I decided to start with something solid, something certain, something built on the rule of law.

And that is the wonderful lifeline thrown to us by Scotland’s Super Six and their victory at the Court of Justice of the European Union. This ruling from the CJEU means that the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50 and stay in the EU on the same terms as we currently enjoy. The “Scottish Case”,as it is known, gives the UK the option of a democratic way out of Britain’s Brexit bùrach, or clusterbùrach as we now like to say in the SNP. It’s thanks to the collaborative expertise, lateral analysis, professionalism and dogged determination of the cross-party group of six MSPs, MEPs and two QCs that we now have a means of waking up from this nightmare. The two Jo QCs were particularly crucial.

First Joanna Cherry QC, whose status as an MP provided the essential locus for the case. It is not widely known that Jo came under substantial pressure from people who should have known a great deal better to drop her involvement in the case. But like all the best determined women she stuck to her principles.

All we need now is a majority of the other 649 MPs to show the same guts and gumption and direct the suspension of Article 50. Meanwhile the director of the Good Law Project Jolyon Maugham QC provided the means and expertise to allow this initiative to proceed to success. Some good news at last.

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So, it’s not just Deal or No Deal after all. A lifeline indeed and something to cling to as we return our gaze to cloud cuckoo land, where disorder continues to reign.

In Westminster, we have a Prime Minister stuck between a rock and some hard cases – beholden to her desperate and compromising confidence and supply arrangement with the DUP; and the European Research Group, a raggle-taggle band of Brexiteers with still no alternative Brexit plan to offer the country despite having more than two years to come up with one.

After all, leaving the EU is the ERG’s raison d’etre and since they were formed back in 1993, you’d think they would have come up with an innovative exit strategy by now. But it’s obviously hard to build a policy when your beliefs are aligned to an ideal of the British empire’s former glories and a dream of a UK that never truly existed outside an Enid Blyton novel.

This impossible situation has created a giant bottle-neck in Westminster. No movement forward, a Prime Minister in stasis, and an official opposition without either the guile or backbone to take her down.

And yet, despite the paralysis at the heart of the Tories and the almost inertia of the Labour Party, Leavers continue to sprinkle the great Brexit Unicorn with fairy dust. It’s a bit like Conservative Brexit minister Steve Barclay’s idea that a hard Brexiteer as PM would unite the country, as he espoused on Radio 4 yesterday. What country? Scotland’s democratic decision has been right royally disrespected and ignored throughout the whole process, while remember a majority of the people of Northern Ireland also voted to remain, although the DUP tend to forget this inconvenient truth. Which just goes to show that the UK is at its most disunited ever. This shoogly union is far from equal.

It would help if Westminster was prescribed a big dose of sensible medicine. Despite the facts on the table, Leavers keep banging on about situations they cannot change. Barclay, Leadsom and the rest of what’s left of the gang still in government continue to talk about renegotiating a new deal with Brussels, in other words, one without a backstop. They’re clutching at straws. No matter how many times EU leaders say no more negotiation, and no chance of modification of the backstop, the Brexit bunch just stick their fingers in their ears. Barclay even seems to think it’s possible to challenge the CJEU’s final ruling on the Scottish Case, an extraordinarily ignorant position for a former lawyer to advocate. He, of all people, should know that an CJEU referral judgement is definitive and cannot be appealed.

This leads to another solid fact in a sea of nonsense and untruths and that is this. The option of remaining in partnership with 27 other European nations will be better for Britain, and better for all four parts of the UK. It will be better for Scotland and our future destiny as an independent nation, enjoying, for the first time in hundreds of years, the benefits of being an equal partner in a union of equals – just look at Ireland and how they have gained from the respect and mutual understanding by being part of the EU. Ireland is a nation that has kept its distinct character, has pulled itself back to prosperity out of a crippling recession and is now making progressive decisions about its future. Just this week, EU Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt reiterated that the EU will not let down Ireland over the backstop. Imagine that level of support for Scotland?

Well, it’s almost in our reach. We’ve got a formidable team in the SNP fighting our corner and acting like the grown-ups in terms of being open to cross-party collaboration and seeking a legal and democratic solution to the Brexit mess.

The ruling from the CJEU on our ability to unilaterally reverse Article 50 in Parliament and end the Brexit chaos would ensure that Scotland’s place in Europe is protected. However our overriding objective is not just to protect Britain’s place within Europe but to establish Scotland’s position as an independent nation. Scotland’s ability to save our neighbours from the folly of their own political class is strictly limited.

And so whatever the denouement of the bùrach the next natural step is breaking free from the inequality of our position in the UK, and, through independence, pulling up a new chair at the top table in Brussels. If the UK ends up out then it is an overwhelming and immediate imperative. If the UK grudgingly stays in then we need to use this nightmare as an illustration of why we must not be held to ransom by England’s Brexiteerism ever again. Either way the objective should be Scotland, a European nation once again.