Counting down the days till SNP defeat; Nicola Sturgeon attempts to use Brexit as a lever for a second independence referendum are doomed to failure, the SNP needs something which it can’t get a majority in Holyrood after the 2021 election, Sturgeon’s ran out of time

Dear All

It must be clear to you by now that Scottish independence bids don’t hold any interest with the majority of the Scottish public. 2014 referendum came and went and the result was no surprise. The deeper the SNP get into government, the more they prove that they are incapable to manage Scottish affairs. It isn’t enough for them to shout, ‘Stronger for Scotland’ when the reality is clearly the opposite.

Nicola Sturgeon’s career is on the slide, the faster she tries to save it the less traction she gets, what will finish her off is her record in government which is pitiful. In order to try and keep people on side, Sturgeon will use any excuse to attempt to call a new referendum, the current excuse is as we all know Brexit. Such is the contempt for democracy and the Scottish people that she now has to use ‘will of the parliament’ as a mandate when in fact the mandate should come from the voters.

The voters of Scotland do not want independence, especially independence which endangers our national and economic security.

In order to try and appear relevant, Nicola Sturgeon insists she will decide whether to hold a second independence referendum by the end of the year.

Let us be absolutely clear, she doesn’t have the authority to a second independence referendum, nor does she have a mandate from the people. In 2021, the most important election possibly in Holyrood history takes place; the outcome of that election should end the independence question for quite some time. 2021 is the looking like the year of a hung parliament at this stage as people desert the SNP as either voters or party members.

One thing which is taken by many as a ‘given’ is that no matter how good the UK Brexit talks are Nicola Sturgeon will still try to justify a new referendum. What Sturgeon is doing is trying to keep onside her own wee bitter nationalists who will probably end up turning on her for a failure to deliver. I would say that the way things stand at present even if Sturgeon gets the Scottish Greens on board she won’t have enough votes to get a majority.

No majority seems to be the state of play, and has been for some time now!

Scottish Conservative MP John Lamont said:

“Nicola Sturgeon has no interest in securing a successful Brexit deal, all she cares about is a second independence referendum”.

He is right and he also added:

“She has created a damaging distraction when her priority should be working with the UK Government to get the right deal for Scotland and the whole of the UK. She should take the threat of a second independence referendum off the table. Instead she has put it front and centre - which is the last thing Scots want or need.”

In politics, the rule of thumb to get elected is to give the people what they want and clearly since the debacle of 2014, the public don’t want to know, they want to get on with their lives and have some sense of security.

And that isn’t what Nicola Sturgeon is providing, our national and economic security is paramount importance to Scots, we have seen what happens to countries when this is out of kilter…… chaos.

Another interesting but doomed ploy was the SNP trying to get the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on board for a majority in the House of Commons for staying in the single market.

If you don’t know what that in the electoral sense, allow me to explain, it means political suicide for the Labour Party and its leader. Although I have blogged that Jeremy Corbyn in the past hasn’t handled foreign affairs well, on this issue, he is smart enough to realise the concept that the people have made a decision.

There is no question of Labour gets its act together to join a coalition of the damned because Sturgeon’s nonsense isn’t the bigger picture. To refresh your memory, parliament agreed to abide by the decision of the Brexit vote.

In grasping at straws, Sturgeon said:

“The vast majority of Labour members want to see the UK stay in the single market, so if we can bring that consensus together then I believe there is an opportunity. Jeremy Corbyn has to decide where he stands on all of this. I think most of his supporters will be deeply disappointed that he appears to be only slightly less in favour of a hard Brexit than the Tories are and many will find that completely inexplicable.”

Jeremy Corbyn has said:

“the single market is dependent on membership of the European Union.”

Recently SNP MP Ian Blackford tried to urge Labour to join a cross-party bid to keep the UK in the single market and customs union, with his SNP group, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Greens, that was ignored, and rightly so.

A UK Government spokeswoman said:

"We are seeking a deal that works for the whole of the UK, that delivers on the result of the EU referendum. Rather than trying to undermine the result of a democratic referendum, we urge the Scottish Government to work with us to ensure, as we leave the EU, we protect the UK's vital internal market. Scotland trades four times as much with the rest of the UK as it does with the EU, so it is vital that we ensure that market continues unimpeded."

Finally, when you play games, there comes a time when the games must end, when Sturgeon’s game ends, the SNP will have to finally accept that they are just a minority administration going nowhere, and more importantly have nothing to offer the people of Scotland. 

Then the people who have been ignored will get their opportunity at the ballot box and decide what they want, they want better health services, better education, better law and order, improvements to infrastructure and economic growth, all of which is beyond the limited ability of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP as a whole.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University