Scotland’s colonial governor, Wee Dougie Alexander, Labour’s answer to the toxic oil slick that is Michael Gove, has said that Westminster would “take an SNP majority [at Holyrood] seriously” after being pressed by SNP MP Stephen Gethins to respond to Keir Starmer’s recent comment that “if there’s an SNP majority [in Holyood], it’s got to be looked at in Westminster” in relation to a future Scottish independence referendum. With all due respect to Stephen Gethins, who said after Scottish Questions at Westminster: “If the SNP win a majority next year, the people of Scotland should have a choice over whether the country should have a “fresh start” with independence. Keir Starmer is on record agreeing with that and today Douglas Alexander confirmed it,” neither Alexander nor Starmer said any such thing. Even if they had explicitly said that an SNP majority in Holyrood next year would lead to them facilitating another independence referendum, which they certainly didn’t, both Alexander and Starmer are known liars who will say what is convenient to them at the time, then go and do something completely different later.
However what Starmer and his North Sea oil slick really said were anodyne content free responses to a question they don’t want to answer, answers which don’t actually commit them to anything at all. After all it’s not like Wee Dougie could say that the UK Government isn’t going to take the outcome of next May’s Scottish election seriously, even though we all know that’s the reality. What Starmer said was nothing at all. An SNP majority being “Looked at in Westminster” more plausibly means that Starmer will pronounce that an SNP majority in Westminster means there shouldn’t be another independence referendum for the same spurious, gaslighting, and goalpost shifting reasons that were trotted out after the May 2021 Holyrood election when we learned that a Scottish election campaign which had centred on the question of a second independence referendum hadn’t been about a second independence referendum after all.
Just a few weeks ago, Starmer ruled out another Scottish independence referendum, saying: “We’re not having an independence referendum. It is a distraction. It won’t happen. It is a distraction from the record of the SNP.”
The truth is that the outcomes of democratic events in Scotland are only accepted and respected by Westminster when the people of Scotland give the British parties a result which is to their liking. I remain convinced that had the result of the 2014 independence referendum gone the other way and been 55% Yes and 45% No, Westminster would not have accepted the result and the BBC, which described 2014’s 55% No result as “decisive” would have said that Scotland was pretty evenly split on the issue.
The only way that Scotland will be respected by Westminster is by playing hard-ball, and adopting a far more assertive and bold attitude. For starters, the Scottish Government must show a willingness to push back and a refusal to accept and implement Westminster’s constant attempts to undermine, sideline or by-pass the devolution settlement.
Just today, it has come to light that the British Government is refusing to reimburse Scotland for the £24.5 million cost of policing Donald Trump and JD Vance’s recent visits to Scotland. These visits were ostensibly private, despite the fact that both Trump and Vance met with senior British Government figures during their time in the UK. Starmer had a meeting with Trump at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire, while Vance met with Foreign Secretary David Lammy in England. So it’s disingenuous of Westminster to claim that since the visits were private the policing costs should be shouldered by the Scottish public purse. Foreign relations, and diplomacy are jealously reserved to Westminster. The Scottish Government neither sought these visits nor initiated them and was not in any position to refuse the pair of corrupt wannabe dictators visas.
On previous supposedly private visits such as Trump’s visit to Scotland in 2018, the UK Government reimbursed the policing costs to Scotland. That Starmer’s government is not doing so now is very obviously a power move, an attempt to tell Holyrood who the boss is. The Scottish Government needs to respond with much more than a stern letter from the Finance Secretary Shona Robison.
The great bulk of the policing costs were incurred in an attempt to spare the British Government the diplomatic embarrassment of Trump being confronted by the sight of large numbers of pissed off Scottish people telling him exactly what they thought of him.
The Scottish Government should tell Westminster in no uncertain terms that should the mango Mussolini and his little helper ever return to Scotland, Police Scotland will strictly limit itself to protecting the Scottish public, will not provide any additional resources over and above what it would normally provide to ensure public order and safety at a large demonstration, and will make no effort whatsoever to protect the feelings of the thin skinned Trump, nor to insulate him and his entourage from the people of Scotland.
Police Scotland will not close down public highways, will not restrict access to public beaches, and will not prevent legal and peaceful demonstrators from coming within sight or earshot of Trump and his minions. Police Scotland will also ensure that Trump and his entourage obey all laws while in Scotland, his vehicles will not be permitted to break the speed limit on the A77, which will not be closed down for him. Nor will they be allowed to go the wrong way round the roundabout at the end of the Maybole by-pass as they did this summer while Police Scotland looked the other way.
Trump has his own security detail, he can pay for and organise his own protection. It is not the business of the Scottish Government to go along with Starmer’s desire to suck up to Trump and prevent him from being confronted with evidence of his very real and deep unpopularity in Scotland. Westminster can deal with the diplomatic fall out as Westminster has made it very clear that diplomatic matters are not Holyrood’s concern. Starmer’s government needs to learn that if it plays stupid games with Holyrood, it’s going to win stupid prizes. It’s only by keeping up the pressure on the Labour government on all issues that it’s going to learn that the Scottish Government will not be pushed around.
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