Time to call the bluff of Sturgeon the boring drone, writes LEO MCKINSTRY
THE Queen of the Remoaners has been at it again. Interviewed yesterday on the BBC, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon indulged in yet another of her tiresome dirges about Brexit, laced with her usual threats.
This is the dreary soundtrack we have had to endure ever since the Referendum vote last June. In the process Sturgeon has become the biggest Caledonian bore since the first oil wells were sunk in the North Sea.
In her hectoring performance she demanded that in the event of Brexit the UK must remain part of the single market. In her habitual tone of superiority and menace she warned that if Theresa May and her Government do not meet her demands then she will call a second referendum on Scottish independence.
“They will be making a big mistake if they think I am in any way bluffing,” she declared.
Sturgeon threatens ANOTHER independence referendum
We have passed Peak Sturgeon. Her popularity is in decline, as is the cause of Scottish independence
She then threw in a smug Left-wing sneer about the return of sovereignty from Brussels, asserting that Scotland must be given “the opportunity to decide” if “it wants to be driven off a hard Brexit cliff by Right-wing Tory Brexiteers”. Who does Sturgeon think she is to make these endless attempts at political blackmail?
For all her grand airs and delusions of power, she is just the leader of a devolved assembly in a small country whose population is less than a tenth of England’s. No English, Welsh or Northern Irish citizen has ever voted for her. She does not even believe in the future existence of the UK, so what on earth gives her the right to appoint herself the arbiter of our national destiny?
She wants self-determination for Scotland from English rule yet aims to deny the same freedom for the English from EU rule. Her desperate attempts to manipulate Brexit for her own separatist ends are an affront to democracy.
In September 2014 in their referendum on independence, the Scots voted decisively to remain in the United Kingdom. In June 2016, the people of the same United Kingdom voted decisively to leave the European Union. What part of those democratic outcomes does she not understand?
Indeed, her stance on Brexit is riddled with absurdities. She claims Scots are gripped by anger over the prospect of leaving the EU but she grossly exaggerates the support for Brussels north of the border.
It should be remembered that though the Scots voted 62-38 for Remain the turnout was significantly lower than in England. Moreover, the number of Scots who backed Leave, 1.018million, was almost the same as the 1.059million who voted for her SNP in the last election for the Edinburgh parliament in 2015.
The overwhelming Scottish indifference to the EU was graphically illustrated last September when the Remoaners organised a “march for Europe” in Edinburgh. Little more than 100 people attended. “I was most disappointed with the turnout,” wailed one participant. “What happened to the much-publicised march from the Castle to Holyrood? I counted four individuals with flags.”
Just as deceitful is Sturgeon’s shrill insistence on Britain’s membership of the European single market. As she knows this is the “Fake Brexit” option for it means the continuation of free movement and Brussels jurisdiction, which is exactly why she so fervently supports it. But it is ridiculous that Sturgeon, while clamouring for the EU Single Market, wants Scotland to leave a far more important and advantageous economic zone, that of the UK.
Only 17 per cent of Scotland’s exports go to the EU whereas 66 per cent of them go to the UK. Sturgeon’s entire EU charade is intended to fuel the sense of Scottish grievance which is central to the Nationalists’ drive for independence. But the narrative of victimhood is grossly misplaced.
For decades British politicians have bent over backwards to accommodate Scottish sensitivities. The result has been a gross imbalance in the relationship between Scotland and England. Because of devolution, England MPs have little say in the domestic affairs of Scotland, yet Scottish MPs have a direct influence of English domestic affairs.
Public spending per head is £1,200 higher in Scotland than in England. Because of the largesse of English subsidies, there are no student tuition fees, road tolls, prescription charges or elderly care fees for Scots, while for the past seven years, NHS spending north of the border has been 15 per cent higher than in England.
A tartan block on Brexit would be the greatest injustice of all. Fortunately Sturgeon’s political position is much weaker than she pretends. Her administration at Edinburgh has presided over a catalogue of epic incompetence and irresponsibility, epitomised by the largest fiscal deficit in Europe.
Nor is there much hope of financial salvation from the North Sea oilfields, where revenues fell from £9.6billion in 2011/12 to just £60million last year.
We have passed Peak Sturgeon. Her popularity is in decline, as is the cause of Scottish independence. At the last Holyrood election the SNP actually lost seats, and according to the latest poll 62 per cent of Scots oppose the idea of another independence referendum this year. Fury at Brexit was meant to boost Scottish nationalism but if anything the reverse has happened.
England has danced to Scotland’s tune for too long. Sturgeon’s bluff should be called over her threats of another separatist vote. The most likely outcome would be her own welcome demise.