THE irony should be lost on no-one. On the day it was confirmed that UK exports to the European Union had dropped through the floor because of Brexit, the grand Unionist strategy to resist Scottish independence was trailed in The Daily Telegraph.
Boris Johnson, who was repeatedly warned against pressing ahead with a hard Brexit during the coronavirus outbreak, is, according to the Tory house newspaper, set to tell the restless natives north of the Border that they can’t have a referendum during the pandemic.
The problem with BoJo’s cunning plan worthy of Baldrick is that no-one is proposing to hold a referendum right now, this very second, in the midst of the pandemic. What is taking place, however, is a Scottish Parliament election on May 6.
What can be decided in the forthcoming Holyrood election is that it is for the Scottish Government and Parliament to decide on the optimal timing of a referendum as we emerge from Covid and need the powers of independence to build back better and reach our full potential.
READ MORE: Revealed: How the UK Government is preparing to stop an independence referendum
On the ballot paper will be a straight choice between Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, who want the people of Scotland to be in charge of Scotland’s future, or Boris Johnson’s Conservatives, who want Westminster to run Scotland and deny people their democratic say. I for one am delighted Boris Johnson is entering the Scottish Parliament election campaign.
He will help immeasurably, but not in the way Downing Street hopes. In a lengthy, well-researched article The Telegraph’s political correspondent Ben Riley-Smith yesterday gave us an insight into discussions involving half-a-dozen UK Cabinet ministers, plus UK Government advisers and anti-independence figures. According to The Telegraph, one of the big initiatives aimed at undermining the momentum towards independence is, just wait for it, that Westminster MPs should meet for two weeks a year at Holyrood during September.
This comes from the same school of Unionist thought that imagined the Scottish Grand Committee of Westminster MPs meeting at the Royal High School in the 1990s or that returning of the Stone of Scone would slow or reverse demands for Scottish self-determination.
That this latest hair-brained scheme – for 650 Westminster MPs to cram into a Holyrood chamber made for 129 MSPs while the Scottish Parliament is in session and without even asking – says as much about its proponent Jacob Rees-Mogg (above) as the general UK Government approach to Scotland. Has it ever entered his head that this perfectly illustrates that Scotland is run from Westminster by people the Scottish electorate never voted for, specifically a Conservative Party that has not won an election in Scotland since 1955?
According to Number 10 polling strategist James Johnson: “The latest plan out of Whitehall to save the Union is to bring out the flag. Union Jack icons will adorn playparks, community centres, and assets that only exist due to funding from Westminster. It forms part of a wider campaign to inform sceptical Scots of the generous realities of devolution.”
He went on to argue that what is required is “head rather than heart”, and that denying a democratic vote would be popular, the same failed strategy that Scottish Tories have relentlessly deployed since 2014.
Meanwhile, the former Scottish Tory head of communications Adam Morris has asserted that the challenge about denying democracy in Scotland is just about clever messaging. Under the headline in yesterday’s Scotsman “Conservatives now have all the ammunition they need to dismiss demands for indyref2” Morris wrote without once even addressing the democratic deficit.
READ MORE: SNP slam Jacob Rees-Mogg for plan to have Westminster MPs sit in Holyrood
To the confusion of everybody, the Scottish Tories are running an election campaign highlighting that an SNP victory will mean an independence referendum, while the UK Tory leadership says that it will block it regardless of the democratic result. Both things cannot be true.
Having a credible and consistent message is not something the Tories have on the subject. Only last week, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the question of indyref2 should be for people in Scotland to decide. They are all over the place. The Tory plans for Scotland are less “bread and circuses” and more “cauld kale het up”. We’ve heard it all before.
Despite the weaponising of the Holyrood inquiry into sexual harassment by opposition parties and the right-wing Unionist media, the SNP are still in poll position, independence support is strong and a majority believe there should be indyref2 within the next five years (parliamentary term).
However, polls this week show nothing should be taken for granted, with one suggesting an SNP majority and another not. In particular, the gap between constituency and list votes could make a big difference which is why the campaign over the next eight weeks is key. Please encourage everyone to make sure it is #BothVotesSNP
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