Scotland: Work Still to Be Done

Over coffee with a like-minded friend in Edinburgh last week, the only morsel of comfort we could take from the results of the General Election was the body blow dealt to the SNP who lost half a million votes and 38 seats, reducing them to a rump of 9 out of the 57 Scottish constituency seats at Westminster. It is hardly surprising given the mess they have made of Scotland.

First there was the reign of tartan terror under Nicola Sturgeon, followed by the failed MacCaliphate of Humza Yusaf, and crowned by the appointment of a First Minister who people had largely forgotten about. But it also struck us that, regardless of the mess of the country and the unravelling of any credibility the SNP ever had in the wake of various financial scandals (not to mention the ridiculous Hate Crime Bill), that the blighters were still in charge.

The results of the General Election have no direct bearing on the composition of the government of Scotland. That is decided by a Scottish General Election to appoint Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Currently the SNP hold 63 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and it should not be forgotten that the election in Scotland uses proportional representation.

The long-suffering Scots may not yet have seen the end of the SNP. As unlikely as it is, they may still be running the country (into the ground) after the next Scottish General Election in 2026. It possibly depends on how much the voting in Scotland was a protest against the Conservatives. Admittedly, there were not many Conservatives in Scotland to protest against. Only seven seats were held by Conservative MPs and only five remain. But the Scottish voters may think ‘job done’ at a UK level and that they’ll keep the SNP in charge up there.

The problem for the people of Scotland is that it is almost two years until the Scots must vote again. This is plenty of time for the Starmer government to have inflicted some misery on the people of the UK, which includes Scotland. While many of the more insane policies of the Labour government are aligned with those of the SNP, Net Zero for example, any downturn in the fortunes of the Scottish people will be interpreted by the SNP as English oppression of the nation.

Alternatively, any upturn in the fortunes of the Scottish people will be ignored and the message will still be one of oppression. Oppression and anti-Englishness are the lenses through which the SNP projects its policies in Scotland. Such an approach to politics north of the border means that common sense comes second to calls for freedom; the illusion that Scotland can go it alone and rhetoric about Scotland being ‘occupied’, ‘colonised’ or ‘dominated’ from south of the border. We Scots – and I am one – have a massive chip on our shoulders.

In fact, the truth is that Scotland is propped up from south of the border, especially from the economically successful southeast of England via one of the only trains that runs on time in the UK, the gravy train that is the Barnett formula. Without the Barnett formula, Scotland would indeed be oppressed…but by poverty. The SNP, while never eschewing the £40billion annually that they receive, perpetuates the fiction that Scotland can go it alone. They forget to add that they could only do so by raising revenue from the Sottish people, which would mean crippling levels of tax for businesses and the citizens of Scotland.

As the Scottish Government so ineloquently put it: ‘An independent Scotland would be able to forge an economic model that is quite distinct from the UK’s. The full powers of independence would enable Scotland to marry economic dynamism with social solidarity much more effectively than it is able to do within the constraints of devolution.’ And, no, I. cannot make sense of that either. What has been preventing them from doing it so far? Maybe ‘economic dynamism with social solidarity’ means painting windows on an unfinished £48million ferry to give the impression that it was finished. If nothing else, that showed a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’.

If the people of Scotland are going to be saved from the excesses and incompetence of the SNP, they must save themselves by not voting for them. Those with a voice must not cease calling out the nationalists and impressing on my fellow Scots what folly independence would be. The excellent Effie Deans (pseudonym) who blogs as Lily of St. Leonards, features frequently in Country Squire Magazine and has also graced these pages, is one of the foremost commentators on the abject stupidity of the SNP and all things associated with independence. If you need arguments against an independent Scotland, and especially one run by the SNP, then she is an excellent source of facts and opinion. She is the real ‘Flower of Scotland’.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.

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