The end of a failed SNP political career: SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon stands alone in battle over Brexit powers, Lord Hope of Craighead describes why Nicola Sturgeon will lose at the UK Supreme Court, ‘low road’ politics is all the SNP can muster now grievance, grievance, grievance; it is not in Scotland’s national interest for Nicola Sturgeon to continue as First Minister

Dear All

Having been told that the offer by Prime Minister Theresa May is final on Brexit, Nicola Sturgeon has decided to stand alone against the UK government in an unwinnable fight. Fighting for the sake of fighting is stupid. Nicola Sturgeon’s act is more in line with someone who is an ‘attention seeker’ rather than a serious politician. 

Sturgeon wanted a constitutional crisis in order to try and restarted another doomed to fail Scottish independence bid and it now looks inevitable that a date with the UK Supreme Court is on the cards.  

In attempting to appear meaningful, the SNP leader has dismissed London's offer on the EU Withdrawal Bill as not being in the Scottish national interest, this is a joke because the SNP aren’t interested in the best interests of Scotland. 

If Theresa May’s offer was so bad, the Labour government in Wales won’t have done a compromise on the Bill earlier this week. In a crude attempt to rally Labour in Scotland, Sturgeon said that no self-respecting MSP could support the Conservative offer. This is Sturgeon playing at politics, she knows she will lose, and wants to have parliament back into two camps, pro UK Vs nationalists.

People like Nicola Sturgeon don’t care about anything except getting her way; she regarded the final Brexit amendments as unacceptable. She saying this would allow the UK government to override the will of Holyrood and impose legislation. If you think back to the Council tax freeze, the SNP didn’t have a problem using threatens to override the will of Councils to impose the freeze or face consequences.

   

Whitehall have made it clear Theresa May does not intend to offer Scotland anything beyond its deal with Cardiff, and if MSPs withhold consent for the EU Bill, it will mean the UK government will continue its challenge to Holyrood’s alternative Brexit Bill at the Supreme Court. There is a case to be made for more powers for Holyrood but now there is a case to be made for removal of powers. In recent weeks, there is a feeling among some that this needs to go further and closed down Holyrood, the parliament has been an expensive failure due to the calibre of MSPs selected and elected.

In politics, the direction of travel must be forward, and it is time that the UK government pressed ahead, although intergovernmental talks have been pencilled, this won’t solve the problem. Westminster must act to protect the UK economic interest and secure our ‘single market’ this means it must impose Brexit legislation. Given that the people of Scotland rejected the SNP version of independence, there will be no real support for the SNP controlled Holyrood.

I have to say I look forward to Nicola Sturgeon losing at the UK Supreme Court, and despite Sturgeon’s emphatic rejection of the UK government’s offer, nothing will be stopping Brexit. This is the problem with Sturgeon; she is the past, a ghost of the past who thinks she is politically relevant in 2018.

Nicola Sturgeon along with Alex Salmond became politically irrelevant at 10 pm on the 14^th September 2014, and although anger carried the tide for them to get 56 MPs, in less than two short years, the head had been cut off the SNP Westminster snake and the 56 became 35.

The 35 SNP MPs in some constituencies hang by a thread.

It seems to me that UK wanting to retain control over 24 devolved areas, most related to agriculture, fisheries and the environment, for up to seven years after Brexit isn’t a big deal. It isn’t a big deal because it is in Scotland’s national interest to create UK-wide frameworks to protect the internal market.

A strong UK means a stronger Scotland.

So, why doesn’t the SNP grasp this?

The answer is simple….. time!

Time catches up with everyone and everything, in history there are certain times of opportunity to effect change, the SNP think they can wipe the slate clean, generate the same level of interest in another independence bid. What Brexit has done has been to change the political landscape of the UK. This event left the SNP exposed as their own independence narrative is now worthless, and once we are out, the appetite for returning to the EU won’t be there, a million Scots said no to EU membership. The EU is falling apart with member states becoming increasingly unhappy about the way it is run and who it is run by.

At First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson accused Ms Sturgeon of “dancing on the head of a pin” to find excuses not to reach agreement.

She said:

“There is a deal to be done here. The Welsh have backed it, other parties in this chamber back it, and business wants her to back it, so will the First Minister for once do a deal in the national interest and not in her nationalist interest?”

Everybody knows what is going on, the SNP is a party which has seen its voter share fall, in fact I came across a video where someone who voted SNP described Nicola Sturgeon as ‘BITCH’ and a ‘COW’ for imposing minimum pricing on alcohol. I wonder how many votes the SNP will be losing over minimum pricing on alcohol?

Will there be convoys to England for cheap booze?

LibDem MSP Tavish Scott said:

“We have been constantly assured that SNP Ministers would work to achieve an agreement across the governments of the UK. They now look set to depart from that position. Uncertainty for businesses and citizens continues. That is not in Scotland’s interests.”

Lord Hope of Craighead, formerly Scotland’s most senior judge, said the UK and Scottish governments appeared “very close to agreement” but the reality is, you can’t trust the SNP anymore than you can trust a rabid dog not to bite when angry. There is only ‘low road’ politics where the SNP are concerned, grievance, grievance, grievance; it is a record that has grown old.

Lord Hope of Craighead added:

“One of the boundaries [of devolution] is that the Scottish Parliament cannot legislate in areas that are outside its own territory. The UK government is saying ‘we can’t give you a veto over this’, which is effectively what the Scottish government is asking for and it is difficult to get round that final position.”

Finally, although the SNP is made up of many MSPs who are lawyers, there is a distain for the law, the SNP don’t do law well. Nicola Sturgeon herself is a lawyer with a less than glowing legal career behind her. It is time that Nicola Sturgeon learned that she won’t be damaging Scotland and the rest of the UK national interest and if that means a Court case so be it. Sturgeon’s position as SNP leader is becoming more untenable day by day, people even in the nationalist community will be asking how long must this sham of a leader continue before they say 'enough is enough'?

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University