Major Jitters over Scottish Independence

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By Jason Michael

At long last Tory insiders are getting the message. Pushing Brexit on Scotland only strengthen the resolve of the Scottish people to end their union with London. This entire process has shown us just how much Scotland is ignored by Westminster.

Perhaps John Major is the Boris Yeltsin of British politics; a bit of a buffoon, but a man who doesn’t get half the credit he is due for the part he played in ending the tyranny that preceded him. He certainly made a great deal of sense today when he described Brexit as “an historic mistake.” Okay it’s not particularly difficult in these days of Brexit and Trumpism to make sense, but, aside from that, Major did hit the nail on the head: Brexit was, and is continuing to be, oversold to the people of the Britain. The public hasn’t been told the truth, Europe will not do business with a gun to its head, and Downing Street is in overdrive trying to downplay the costs of this mistake.

It tells you how far we’ve fallen that John Major sounds like an orator and a statesman, not someone with underpants on his head.
— Prof Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) February 27, 2017

However much British people have been given unreal and over optimistic expectations regarding the benefits of leaving the European Union, and no matter how much Iain Duncan Smith tries to write his words off as “angry” and “bitter,” Major is right. Whether due to its typical arrogance or as a result of its now predictable stupidity, the British government is blind to Scottish independence coming at it like a juggernaut. Brexit was rejected in Scotland, and yet Theresa May has passed up on every opportunity that has been offered to her by the Scottish government to take the concerns of Scotland seriously.

Not so very long ago the Union was saved in Scotland on the back of Westminster’s insistence that Scotland was an equal partner within the United Kingdom. Now, after failing to deliver on any of the promises it made, the London government is using Brexit as a weapon to hammer the Scots into submission and not quite realising that this is only proving to Scotland that it is little more than a possession of the UK with which the British government can do as it pleases. God only knows where it came from but it would appear that, after awakening from the stupor of the Lords, John Major has had a moment of clarity – Scotland will not put up with this for long.

Whatever proposals Nicola Sturgeon has put to the Prime Minister are now irrelevant. Theresa May will trigger Article 50 in the coming days and her intention is that Scotland will be leaving the EU along with the rest of the UK. She could not make it clearer that there is to be no more discussion on this, and so time is running out for Sturgeon. If it is the intention of the Scottish government to call another independence referendum in order to protect Scotland from the effects of Brexit then the last chance for this will be during the SNP conference in Aberdeen. Any further delay may well result in Scotland being lost deep inside the Brexit vortex.