Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Demise of SNP ‘civic’ Nationalism: the race to be the next leader of the Scottish National Party has just begun, Scottish Sec David Mundell says ‘even a Yes vote cannot stop Scotland leaving EU under Brexit’, Nicola Sturgeon has failed to stop Brexit, she has failed to deliver a referendum, the question now is, when is she stepping down as First Minister?
















Dear All

The race to be the next leader of the Scottish National Party has unofficially just begun, you ask why, what happened?

Scotland’s unpopular First Minster Nicola Sturgeon failed to stop Scotland from leaving the European Union!

Quick tally to get you synced in.

1/ Lost the Scottish independence referendum 2014
2/ Lost the Brexit referendum of 2016.
3/ Failed to stop Scotland from leaving the European Union!

The question is when will Nicola Sturgeon stand down, will see go after the May Council elections?

The reason for speculation is that Scottish Secretary David Mundell has stated point blank, that even a Yes vote cannot stop Scotland leaving EU under Brexit.

It seems that everybody in the UK is coming out!

The threat of calling an early Holyrood election was threatened by the Nationalists as a date in 2018 was floated by people like Alex Salmond, but the political landscape of Scotland has moved past the SNP.

The SNP is yesterday’s party; it is a party without a future, without a real leader and without a purpose.

When Mundell said that Scotland will be taken out of Europe by Brexit even if there is a vote for independence, he was saying anything new, but the timing of his announcement and the language used is significant.

The SNP have fought two referendums and on each occasion, they have lost! They have lost because they don’t understand or have the ability to cope with ‘direct democracy’ or if you prefer, ‘will of the people’.

A possible future contender for leadership after an interim leader to steady the SNP ship is probably Alex Salmond. Earlier this month, Salmond claimed there could be a referendum in 2018 to ensure “continuing uninterrupted membership of the European Economic Area”. Although Salmond gets a lot wrong, this time…. He is still wrong!

There will be no “continuing uninterrupted membership” of anything, in fact you can see a situation where Westminster looking at the EU offer simply turns round and says WTO to them and walks off.

WTO is World Trade Organisation.

As things are starting to move fast, it is clear that the Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are not part of the process, they are completely irrelevant.   

Mundell is to say in his opening statement to Holyrood’s European committee about Brexit:

“I think it is important to be clear because there has been a lot of public debate on this point - that Scotland will not be in the EU at the end of this process. There is no set of circumstances in which Scotland could remain a member of the EU after the rest of the UK has left. If Scotland's constitutional position were ever to change, it would have to apply to be a member of the EU afresh - and we should not make easy assumptions about the length of time this would take, the process Scotland would have to follow or the terms of membership that may be on offer.”

If independent, Scotland would be at the back of the EU as a new State, there would be no the UK opt-outs, no opt-out on the euro and it would see an end to the rebate which came to Scotland as part of the UK.

The recent nonsense by two leading academics had said an independent Scotland could be fast-tracked into the EU; potentially by 2023 is in my opinion fantasy politics. It kind of looks like two Pro EU friendly academics has been engaged in ‘day dreaming’.

Scottish Tory MEP Ian Duncan said the pair had relied on a series of generous assumptions about EU reactions. Like the SNP, they have assumed that Scotland would get a great deal when there is no real evidence to support this.

Ukip MEP David Coburn pitched in and said it would be “catastrophic” if Scotland had to accept the euro. On that score, he is right. The Euro would break Scotland much in the same way that it has destroyed Greece.

He said:

“This would present insurmountable difficulties as Scotland’s national debt is approximately £15bn thanks to the SNP, which is higher than that of Greece. Scotland would have to suffer a greater austerity than Greece. Mad Sturgeonomics.”

If you like a flutter then you might want to see about getting a bet down on who the next leader of the Scottish National Party is, the only undeclared ‘runner’ is Alex Salmond, perhaps SNP MP Tommy Sheppard might throw his hat into the ring.

The countdown to the end of Nicola Sturgeon in my opinion has started, the clock is counting down, when is she saying she is going to go?

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

6 comments:

Ian said...

Something to add to your Sturgeon tally of failures, George - she also lost the SNP overall majority in the 2016 Scottish Parliament Election. Oh dear, careless!

Aldo said...

It would take years to disentangle from the UK (at the same time as brexit is happening), then years to get back into Europe (on inferior terms). We'd need to cut our deficit by 70% and go through 2 currency changes.

So when is it they are going to call this referendum? :0)

G Laird said...

Dear Aldo

You might find the EU is about to go through a transformation, as it is getting near the 60 year mark.

George

THE INVISIBLE MAN said...

Jimminy Jillickers, George! ;-) Ah but in all fairness, I suspect you'll think the same, but this sounds like the SNP are depending on the same trick yet failing to realise with everything that's happened in the past two years (and has been building up since the 2008 crash - or since 2011 at the latest), things have changed dramatically.

Seriously though, what you said in your last entry about their tax hike being potentially as damaging to them as the poll tax was to the Tories in Scotland made me wince. It's a bit like watching a skateboarder slip and crash crotch first into a railing.

Anonymous said...

I cannot fathom as to why the snp would even want to be a member of the single market given that this is what their silly little paper says, produced as it was 'after much hard work'. For Scotland to be a full member of the single market while the rest of the UK leaves, would mean Scotland could only trade under strict EU 'single membership rules'....and thus gain no benefit from the bi-lateral trade deals done by Britain after Brexit, stuck as it would be under EU trade jurisdiction.

Graeme said...

The Brexit referendum was a British referendum and not a Scottish one. Scotland did not vote in it, but Britain did. We voted as the UK and we will leave as the UK and rightly so. I would have voted to leave 35 years ago.