Out Played Yet Again; SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon gets her Westminster leader Ian Blackford to push for power to hold second independence referendum, the answer is No, Sturgeon is leading the SNP downhill, all plans and schemes amount to nothing, how long can an ineffective leader continue?

Dear All

As futile gestures go, this is a corker, the SNP are going to ask for the power to hold a second independence referendum if Brexit goes ahead. You can already write the reply from Prime Minister Theresa May.

No!

There is no chance whatsoever of the PM granting this request by the SNP, for several reasons, firstly, the previous vote in 2014, secondly, the SNP will be sitting in a pro UK Holyrood in 2021  

And last but not least, Scottish Conservatives will push for being the government of Scotland in 2021; this is the prime reason for rejection. The Conservatives don’t plan to give the SNP an extended campaign platform for them to build up grievance thus generating support. The SNP benefit from a backlash in 2015 as we all saw, that the tide turned in two short years. The SNP plan of a running neverendum campaign as a political tool for winning Holyrood and Westminster seats has run its course.

Leading the charge is Westminster leader Ian Blackford, he will say the people of Scotland should be able to "determine their own destiny" if the UK leaves the EU. They already did in 2016; this was a UK wide vote. The futile attempt is in part about play acting, saving the face of Nicola Sturgeon. After a rejection, Sturgeon will ‘rally the troops’ and vent, but she has no interest in a second referendum unless she can have an open ended Section 30 order from Westminster.

That ain’t happening!

Blackford will table an amendment in the Commons calling for the power to hold another legally-binding vote but he is a bit player of no consequence in Brexit. The real story of Westminster centres around Theresa May facing a series of crunch votes over her Brexit deal and a possible extension of the March 29 deadline. If things work out right, then we should be looking at hard Brexit or no deal, and if the wind is blowing in the right direction, no extension after 29 March.

Roll on Brexit.

What we are seeing is Nicola Sturgeon trying to build a coalition of the damned, to that end she has roped in the Scottish Parliament and in the Welsh Assembly. They will not be having any success in stopping Brexit either.

Blackford said:

“We will be putting down an amendment this week. It will be reflecting on what happened in the Scottish Parliament and in the Welsh Assembly this week simultaneously. There was a motion that came in front of both Parliaments that recognised that Theresa May’s deal and no-deal are not good for Scotland. What we’re going to do is put down an amendment asking for the Government to recognise that Scotland voted to Remain. We’re also putting down, as part of that amendment; a recognition that if the UK does leave the European Union, the people of Scotland should be able to determine their own destiny”.

Blackford added:

“And in particular they should have the power to have an independence referendum if we so choose and we’re making reference in that to the Claim of Right in the debate we had in Parliament in July 2018 when Parliament accepted the motion that sovereignty rests with the Scottish people. So we will do what we can to work with other parties to stop Brexit, we have no desire to see Scotland dragged out against its will, but we need to recognise that if that does happen then the people of Scotland have got to determine their own future."

He added: "There is no such thing as a good Brexit, we know that it's going to cost jobs, we know that it's going to impact living standards, we know of course that no deal is absolutely disastrous for the people of Scotland."

Despite being told last week by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt  that the Prime Minister would “of course” refuse the Scottish Government permission to hold another legally-binding referendum, we are getting this farce. And with Nicola Sturgeon already ruling out holding a so-called “wildcat” vote without Westminster’s go-ahead, the SNP’s teeth have been pulled.

MPs will vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday. If it is defeated again, they will get the chance to vote against leaving the EU without a deal and in favour of extending the Brexit deadline.

This is the real interesting part to watch closely, in truth it is better the country leaves with no deal as I have always said rather than being ripped off.

Blackford saying the SNP will vote to rule out a no-deal Brexit and extend the Article 50 process is nonsense, he will be defeated, as Scottish Conservative MP David Duguid said it’s "another desperate stunt” and insisted it was further evidence the SNP’s only priority is independence

He added "It proves once again that the main goal for the SNP throughout the entire Brexit process has been to try to agitate for a second independence referendum. Their motives are completely transparent, and rather than putting the interests of Scotland first, they're only promoting their narrow-minded agenda. Scots decisively voted No in 2014 and the answer is still the same - it's time the SNP recognised that."

The SNP use the politics of the student union which is why they always end up with egg on their face at Westminster.

Ex Labour MP Pamela Nash, the chief executive of Scotland in Union, said the SNP is “simply using Brexit as a political tool for its latest attempt to break up the United Kingdom”.

Nash added:

“The Nationalists are only interested in dividing the country and holding an unwanted second independence referendum. Ian Blackford and his MPs should listen to the people of Scotland who know we are stronger as part of the UK, and want the SNP to ditch the threat of a second independence referendum.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:

“The SNP seem to have learned nothing from Brexit. Constitutional upheaval brings chaos and economic damage. We shouldn’t compound the damage of leaving the EU by splitting from the U.K. which is responsible for four times more trade with Scotland. Even Theresa May has admitted that no Brexit is still a serious possibility. The SNP should be campaigning to keep the whole of the UK in the EU, not another divisive and unwanted independence referendum.”

A UK Government spokesman said: "Scotland had an independence referendum in 2014 and voted decisively to remain in the UK. The Scottish Government needs to stop using Brexit as an excuse to pursue their unwanted independence agenda. Rather than constantly seeking division and constitutional upheaval, the Scottish Government needs to work with the UK Government to avoid a damaging no deal. That is what people and business in Scotland expect."

Finally, there is no nobleness in constant defeat, the problem the SNP have is that they have run out of steam, hence the same record is played over and over again. Nicola Sturgeon needs time, not for a second Scottish independence referendum, but time to get out of the SNP with enough ‘Scottish roubles’ to get by on. In the not too distant, an angry Yes Mob will be calling for her blood, as will her own members, Brexit failures are securing Sturgeon’s exit as a worse failure than Alex Salmond, he at least led the SNP up the hill, Sturgeon on the other hand isn’t getting to set foot on a mild slope!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University