The SNP is not Scotland
At a dinner held earlier this week by Reaction, at which Ruth Davidson MSP kindly agreed to be the guest speaker, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives said something with crystal clarity and coherence that cannot be said too often: The SNP is not Scotland.
It is worth mentioning this particularly now that the Scottish parliament has voted to seek a second referendum on Scottish independence. MSPs voted by 69 to 59 votes (the Greens voting with the SNP) to seek talks with the UK government on preparing a referendum. With the SNP presenting this vote as somehow the will of the Scottish people (it isn’t) there is a danger that Scotland and the SNP become jumbled in the public consciousness.
We’ve seen this in recent weeks in the media with some headlines declaring that Scots were seeking something or Scots were annoyed. No, the SNP has the support of a lot of Scots but far from all of them and not yet a majority, a reality which drives them bananas. This Holyrood vanity vote is simply the SNP leadership seeking another grievance in pursuit of its sole and longstanding aim – that is breaking up the UK – and trying to make independence look inevitable, which it is not. Meanwhile, the economic case for it is even worse than it was in 2014 when the Scots voted by a healthy 10 point margin to stay in the UK.
That was back in the distant days two and a half years ago when the SNP said that the last referendum was once in a generation and Sturgeon when under fire added that the Scottish parliament would only go for it again if there was a clear demand from a majority of Scots for independence. There isn’t.
The tendency south of the border is sometimes to confuse Sturgeon and the SNP with Scotland. This is accentuated when a generally patient and tolerant people in England turn on their television sets to be daily accosted on the news by the latest whining about this or that by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon or her ministers. You didn’t tell us about the date on which you were going to trigger Article 50, says the SNP leadership to Theresa May. Grow up, was Theresa May’s response in so many words, and you didn’t warn the UK government about your sudden move on a second referendum.
This hitting back reflects a new robustness about the Unionist side and it is much to be welcomed. The SNP leadership looks unnerved by its pitch for a second referendum not having been endorsed by a grateful Scotland, which by now was supposed to be howling at the moon with anger over Brexit and demanding instant independence. It isn’t. All is not going to plan.
A good deal of the new spirit and determination not to be silenced, by an SNP that imposes iron discipline on its own side and cannot take criticism, is down to Ruth Davidson, who is setting about the SNP with considerable verve. Here are her remarks closing for the Tories at Holyrood on Wednesday.
The debate last week was interrupted after the terror attack at Westminster, although not before the SNP refused to stop and there was much unseemly jabbing of fingers and accusations that the opposition parties wanted to suspend the independence debate that day out of respect for what was unfolding in a sister parliament within the UK. Here’s Ruth Davidson:
Since the debate was postponed last Wednesday, we have learned: That fewer than half of nurseries in Scotland will offer extended free early learning and nursery hours. That Police Scotland has a projected deficit of nearly £50 million next year. That just 5% of Scottish schools have been inspected in Scotland in the last year. That the SNP Government has u-turned on junior doctor hours and now won’t bring down the amount of time they can work… And, only this morning, we learn that cancer waiting times have been missed again, for the fourth year in a row.
Last week, in what was a disgraceful episode, we were shouted at from the SNP benches and told we were frightened to debate independence. We’re not. But we are sick of it. And most people in Scotland have had enough too. Because this parliament needs to and must focus on the priorities of the people of this country. This is not the time to be side-tracked by yet more unnecessary division.”
Don’t believe the SNP hype. There is a Unionist fightback underway, led by Ruth Davidson.