A warning from the future

Fresh constitutional chaos as no-one can agree on whether Scotland has just voted for independence or not

by Pamela Molly Bannatyne

– Edinburgh, Friday 3rd May 2024

Hopes that yesterday’s general election could resolve the long-running constitutional stand-off over Scottish independence took a knock early this morning as results came in. The Scottish National Party (SNP) defied the expectations of many pundits by surging to 51 seats north of the border – even more than the 48 they won in their 2019 landslide. They also increased their share of the Scotland-wide popular vote from 45.0% to 47.4%. Crucially, two other pro-independence parties, the Scottish Green Party and Alex Salmond’s Alba Party, grabbed 2.4% and 0.6% of the vote respectively, meaning that the combined vote for pro-independence parties slightly exceeds 50%. Since all three parties had declared the election to be a “de facto referendum on independence”, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to claim later today that a mandate for independence has been secured, and to demand that the UK Government enter into immediate negotiations on an independence settlement.

However, unionist parties have already rubbished this claim. Their objections are mostly centred upon the SNP’s insistence prior to the election that votes for the Alba Party should not count towards the pro-independence tally. This appears to have been intended as a tactic to deter independence-supporting voters from drifting away from the SNP in the small number of constituencies where Alba had put up candidates. But it may have backfired badly, because Alba’s modest vote effectively holds the balance, with the SNP and Greens alone only having secured a combined vote of 49.8%. Pamela Nash of anti-independence group Scotland in Union was dismissive of what she described as “Nicola Sturgeon’s attempt to shift the goalposts after the game is already over”. She pointed out that the plan to exclude Alba votes had been indirectly announced by the SNP’s National Executive Committee as long ago as 14th January 2023.

But Mike Russell, President of the SNP, angrily retorted that the constitutional future of Scotland was not a game. “Independence is a matter for the people of Scotland,” he commented. “It’s not a private cricket match between a closed group of politicians who can decide ‘the rules’ between them. There can be no credible doubt that the people who voted Alba yesterday intended to express their backing for independence, every bit as much as the people who voted SNP and Green. That’s what matters, not the minutiae of what individual politicians may or may not have said before the election.”

There were also growing signs of recriminations from independence supporters who feel Nicola Sturgeon’s vendetta against her predecessor Mr Salmond has led her to make a “catastrophic unforced error” which may have needlessly called into question what would otherwise have been a clear-cut mandate. But some SNP parliamentarians seemed almost relieved that the UK Government may now have a ready-made excuse for disregarding the pro-independence majority. One MP, who asked not to be named, said he hoped the election outcome would come to be seen as “a small but important incremental step in a long-term process that may eventually result in independence one day”. He added: “The last thing we should be doing now is forcing the issue. Remember the tortoise beat the hare in the end. Let’s keep the heid!”

SNP activist Marcus Carslaw agreed. “Gradualism has served the Yes movement extremely well over the last eighty years, and frankly I can’t wait for the next eighty. Slowly slowly catchy monkey.”

Controversial Wings Over Scotland blogger Stuart Campbell reacted furiously. “Women can’t have beards,” he thundered.

Meanwhile, many Scottish political commentators are speculating that independence will now be an issue settled by the 2029 general election. “That’s what we expected all along,” said one prominent columnist, although his recollection was disputed by a colleague sympathetic to independence, who suggested that journalists had been predicting for several years that whichever election happened to be “the next but one” would be decisive.