DAVID Mundell went one step further than Theresa May at the weekend and said he couldn’t foresee any circumstances under which a Conservative government would consent to a Section 30 order.

So, apparently in the Secretary of State for Scotland’s mind, even if there was to be a snap General Election and every single one of Scotland’s constituencies returned an SNP MP by a massive majority – each elected on a manifesto commitment for another independence referendum – then the UK government would still be perfectly justified in refusing consent for one.

WATCH: UK Government and Section 30 – Do as I say, not as I do

At the same time, this UK Government insists that this is a “precious Union” that Scotland is a valued partner in. It’s so precious that Scotland isn’t to be allowed to have any say in its future. Which raises the obvious question, precious to whom?

It is shocking that the vast majority of the media in this country allow the likes of David Mundell to traduce democracy in this way, and don’t seek to hold them to account for it. A blanket refusal from a Scottish politician to permit a course of action, even should that action be the clear and express will of the Scottish people, means that politician is no longer operating within the norms of democratic engagement.

It means that the Scottish Claim of Right is meaningless, even though it was approved by the Westminster Parliament and acknowledged that it’s for the people of Scotland to decide upon the form of government best suited to Scotland’s needs.

It means that Scotland is no longer a country, but rather a subordinate region of Britain. That is a fundamental and unilateral rewriting of the terms under which Scotland has always understood itself to be a part of the UK.

It’s difficult to work out what goes through the minds of opponents of independence and Westminster politicians who say no to a Section 30 order. Do they imagine that those of us who campaign for independence are going to say “Oh well, that’s the gemme a bogey then,” and walk away, reconciled to a Brexit future and supermarkets full of produce plastered with Union flegs. If that’s what they think, they’re in for a very big disappointment.

Back in 2014, the relief on the faces of Better Together after the referendum was because they thought Scotland was going to go back to British business as usual. They were very much mistaken. We’re going to continue to hold Westminster to account for all its failed commitments and broken promises. Of course, in making his pronouncement, David Mundell was speaking way above his pay grade. He was really addressing himself to Scottish Conservative voters and the Scotland in Union green ink brigade who infest the comments sections of Scottish newspapers.

He has neither the authority nor the influence to affect any decision made by the British government. We’ve seen exactly how much he was able, or willing, to influence the course of Brexit in order to protect the interests of a Scotland which voted to remain by a very large margin. If you think David Mundell is steering Scotland’s course within the UK, you probably also think that a crash test dummy is actually driving. Both Scotland and the car end up being destroyed.

This is not an exact analogy of course. The crash test dummy has greater self-awareness and would undoubtedly do a much better job of standing up for Scotland’s interests in the British Cabinet.

There are rumours the crash test dummy is even being considered as a Scottish Conservative candidate if there’s an early General Election, because it would be an improvement on a muppet. Besides, the willingness to repeatedly bang your head off a brick wall is an essential qualification for a Scottish MP.

Realistically, Theresa May’s refusal to countenance another referendum means nothing, and David Mundell’s means even less. There are insects who come out of their pupal phases without mouthparts, who exist solely to breed and then die, who will have a longer lifespan and more of a lasting legacy than Theresa May’s leadership. She is a Prime Minister who is to politics as a Twitter troll is to literature, an irritating annoyance who will soon be forgotten. She has said there will be no Section 30 order, but as the American writer and intellectual Henry David Thereau noted, any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Nicola Sturgeon is playing a more sophisticated game than those Conservatives who insist there will be no Section 30 order. She is not so foolish as to mind Theresa May’s rule. We in Scotland are now confronted with a British government which is explicitly and loudly proclaiming that it has no respect for the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland. That’s a British government which is going to find it extremely difficult to persuade open-minded or soft No voters that Scotland is indeed a valued member of a Union. After all, what sort of union is it when a member can’t decide for itself whether it wishes to remain a member?

Whoever replaces Theresa May is going to be even more of a hardline Brexiter than she is. The next Conservative prime minister will have to placate the strident right-wing populist English nationalism that threatens to split apart the Conservative Party and causes its electoral support to drift away to Nigel Farage. That is not going to play well in Scotland.

The next Conservative prime minister will be even less popular in Scotland than Theresa May, and that’s only going to increase demand for a Scottish independence referendum and make people more open to the idea of independence.

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The strategy for the independence movement from now on will be to continue to increase the political pressure on the British government.

Ultimately, the British government cannot maintain its refusal to allow Scotland to have its say, while at the same time preserving the myth that this is really a Union. The next elections in Scotland are going to be dominated by the issue of a British government which is refusing to listen to Scotland, and if the British government – whoever it is led by – continues to ignore Scotland’s demands, then eventually there’s going to be an election where the independence parties will seek a mandate for independence itself and not just for a referendum.

In that election, it’s going to be impossible for those who support the UK to continue their delusion that Scotland is a partner in a union, and the forces of independence are going to be in an extremely strong position. The Conservatives should be very careful indeed about what they wish for. It’s not going to end well for them.