There is a new Conservative strategy about Scotland. It is for this reason that we will soon have Douglas Ross as Scottish Conservative leader. It is also the reason why Conservatives will attempt to turn the conversation in Scotland away from independence towards the SNP’s domestic record.
Ross first came to my attention in 2017 when he was
able to overturn Angus Robertson’s 9000 majority in Moray. I don’t follow
football, but somehow, I was vaguely aware that Ross refereed Scottish football
matches. If he can handle Old Firm games, then surely, he can take on Nicola
Sturgeon. I also was impressed by how Ross debated with Alyn Smith in the
Commons over claims that there was a Westminster power grab.
I disagreed with the way Ross resigned last May, but this
was the last spasm of the Remain corpse so let us move on.
If Ross wins the leadership of the Scottish
Conservatives, he will have my support. I urge you to support him too. At the
very least let’s give him a chance to show what he can do. Let’s have an open
mind about the possibility of Conservative success in Scotland. Let’s cease
being so gloomy and pessimistic.
It is right from time to time to discuss Scottish independence.
It is the most important issue in Scottish politics. At times it appears to be
the only issue. It is the defining issue that determines how someone votes.
For this reason, I regularly put forward the reasons
why I oppose Scottish independence. I put forward the disadvantages and the logical
inconsistencies of the SNP argument.
My argument is essentially this. Scotland of course
could become independent and could in time if a Scottish Government made
sensible choices become prosperous but setting up a new state would not be easy
and would involve a decade or more of tax rises and spending cuts. This is
usually called “Tory austerity”. The result would be that Scotland would become
a region of the European Union with less power and rather less independence than
we have at present. Scottish nationalists would be able to wave flags and feel
pride in re-establishing Scotland as an “independent” nation state, but it is
unlikely in the short term that we would come close to the prosperity of Norway
or Denmark.
But we would have destroyed the United Kingdom,
partitioned Britain and put some sort of regulatory border between England and
Scotland. Worse than these things we might light the fires of English
nationalism smouldering since the time of Queen Anne sowing discord not merely
in England but in Wales and Northern Ireland too. For this we would rightly
never be forgiven.
The SNP have power without responsibility. They have a
lot of power. We have come to realise in the past few months just how much
power they have. They can decide where you can go on holiday. They can tell you
to stay at home for as long as they want to. They can decide whether you can go
to a restaurant or a pub and they can decide when your child goes to school.
All of these things they can decide even though the British Government has a
different policy.
On most areas of ordinary Scottish life, it is the
Scottish Government that is responsible. What’s more a Scottish MP has the
power to influence life in the UK as a whole and England in particular. We saw this
last year when the Government lacked a working majority. The idea that SNP MPs have
no power is preposterous. They very nearly were able to stop Britain leaving
the EU or else leaving in name only. It was a strategic failure of SNP MPs that
they did not achieve this result. It was down to their mistakes, no one else’s
But despite SNP MPs and MSPs having a great deal of
power they are never held to account for their mistakes. Whatever good things
happen in Scotland are due to the SNP. Whatever bad things happen are blamed on
Westminster. The Conservative Government has received almost zero credit for
the Furlough Scheme and the increases in spending that has helped keep Scots in
work and our businesses from going bust. Scottish nationalists just take the money
that we get because we are British citizens and fellow countrymen and sneer
about selfish Tories while planning to walk away without paying our debts. But
if we had been independent, we would have received no such grants without
strings from the EU nor from any other country. Instead we would have had full
on SNP austerity for decades.
It is a critical failure of Scottish politics and
journalism that those areas that the SNP are responsible for are not clearly
distinguished from those which they are not. If a hospital is not built, it is
the SNP’s fault. If more old people die in care homes in Scotland than in
Denmark it is the SNP’s fault. If more Scots die of Covid in Scotland in
percentage terms than in France, then it is the SNP’s fault.
It is no good comparing ourselves to England all the
time. This is merely a symptom of our ingrained Anglophobia. On devolved issues
Scotland already is as independent as any EU member state. We already have the
powers to raise taxes. If we choose not to do so, then it is the SNP’s fault.
On every single devolved issue Scotland must be
measured not against what England does but against what each European country
does. It’s no use saying if we were independent, we would have all the money we
needed to do this or that. Scotland already has higher public spending per
capita than most of Europe. If Scottish outcomes on health and education are
worse than a European country with similar levels of public spending, it is the
SNP’s fault. There is no one else to blame. It is a sign of deep-seated
prejudice and insecurity that we blame Westminster for something that is our
fault.
If Douglas Ross becomes Scottish Conservative leader, I
hope that he will relentlessly criticise SNP performance on devolved issues
while explaining how Conservatives would run Scotland so that all Scots got
better services. A Scottish Conservative Government by working with Westminster
rather than continually and automatically opposing everything that Boris
Johnson decides because he is English, posh and a Tory, would achieve a far
better outcome for Scotland. Give Douglas Ross a chance to do this.