Nicola Sturgeon loves to make threats. How often have we seen her put on her angry
face, screw up her fists and start talking in her thickest Ayrshire accent
about what she will do if her demands are not met? Her colleagues follow the
leader. Every few days we see a story in a newspaper involving the latest SNP
threat. Perhaps they will do this. Perhaps they will do that. Many of these
stories are, of course, just kite flying. They want to see how Scottish voters
will react. They want to keep everyone guessing and make everyone nervous.
Don’t be nervous. Don’t be worried about what the
SNP will do to us. Rather let them begin to be worried about what we might do
to them. The SNP have ruled Scotland since 2007. They reached the peak of their
power in 2015 when they won nearly all the seats at the General Election, but
they lost their overall majority in the Scottish Parliament in 2016. Who knows,
they may win it back next time round. But then again they may not. Parties
rarely remain in power for ever. Eventually voters want to give the other guy a
chance, if only so that they can see someone else’s face. So who knows how
Scottish voters may eventually respond to Nicola Sturgeon’s threats? Most of us
don’t want indyref2 anytime soon, if at all. Well we live in a democracy. We
might decide to respond to her threats by voting for someone else. If enough of us do so, there will be no more threats.
There are other ways we could respond also. If the
SNP get to fly kites so too can we. Look at the following as a thought experiment.
I’m not sure if it is feasible or even desirable, but it is an option.
There has been the suggestion from Scottish
nationalists that they might hold an independence referendum without the
permission of the UK Government. Apparently it might be possible for the
Scottish Parliament to vote for this even though such a referendum is a
reserved matter and therefore outwith the powers of a devolved parliament. I
have no idea how serious this suggestion is. Let’s assume that some
nationalists, perhaps Nicola Sturgeon herself, are considering this
option. How might we respond?
Well in my view Pro UK political parties should have
nothing to do with this sort of illegality. They should not turn up at the
Scottish Parliament for any such vote. They should moreover suggest that if the
Scottish Parliament is to be used illegally, they might decide to never turn up
again. The Scottish Parliament has not passed a law in the last year. It is
turning into something of a talking shop with no purpose. Well one response
from sensible political parties would be to ignore its existence.
The UK Government could decide that if the Scottish
Parliament is being used to do things that are illegal, indeed seditious, it would be better if
it ceased to be. This could be carried out simply by repealing the Scotland Act
of 1998. A simple majority of MPs at Westminster would be sufficient. This
would be perfectly legal.
What if somehow the SNP succeeded in organizing an
unofficial/illegal independence referendum? Well such a referendum could only
be advisory. Then again aren’t all referendums only advisory? The result of the
EU referendum could have been rejected by the UK Parliament. So therefore, logically, could the
result of the Scottish independence referendum of 2014. Likewise any second
referendum result could be rejected. The UK Government then could promise
that it would ignore the result of an illegal indyref2 on the grounds that the vote was illegitimate.
How best should Pro UK Scots react to such an
unofficial/illegal referendum? My view is that we should boycott it. Imagine if
there were a debate about Scottish independence, but only Nicola Sturgeon
turned up. Imagine if every single person in the audience was a Scottish
nationalist. Imagine if there was no equivalent of Better Together. There was
no Mr Darling making the case for the UK, no Mr Murphy standing on Irn Bru
crates, no nothing. Imagine if people like me and also newspaper journalists ceased to write about the
Scottish independence referendum apart from to remind Pro UK people to
ignore/boycott it. What would be the result of such a campaign of ignoring what
the SNP wanted? Would their referendum look more or less legitimate? Would
anyone think that it advised anyone about anything?
The ideal situation would be that that the SNP won
100% of the vote on a 40% turnout. If all of the Pro UK parties worked together
we could achieve this for them. Sturgeon would have turned herself into Kim
Jong-Nicola, the latest incarnation of “She who must be obeyed”. But she would
not have achieved independence.
Democracy requires an opposition. Without an
opposition it ceases to be a democracy, but rather becomes a laughing stock. So
let the SNP play by the rules. The mood in Scotland has changed. We don’t want
a second independence referendum. We don’t want to go through all of that
division and hate any time soon, if ever. I may only be kite flying, but there
are things that Pro UK people could do that would make the SNP’s position
untenable. We could delegitimise Scottish politics. Push too hard and my guess
is that we might do just that.
