Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019 Page 19Labour’s
willingness
to break up
the Union
for political
advantage
takes my
breath away
W
Ill scotland be
an independent
country in five
years? It would
take a very n a i v e
person to stake everything
against such an outcome.
For months we have been told a no
Deal Brexit will increase the appetite
for going it alone north of the border,
where Remain attracted 62 per cent
of the votes in the 2016 referendum.
even a softer, negotiated Brexit
would, according to some pundits,
make independence more likely,
because a majority of scots don’t
want to be yanked out of the eU
against their will.
But so far all this has been
speculation. now there is a near-
certain route to a self-governing
scotland, cynically provided by
labour’s John McDonnell, the
shadow Chancellor, in defiance of his
party’s previous policy, and to the
great annoyance of some colleagues.
Hours after scottish First Minister
and fierce nationalist nicola sturgeon
opened the door to a ‘progressive
alliance’ with labour, Mr McDonnell
told an audience in edinburgh on
Tuesday that a Corbyn government
‘would not block’ a second scottish
independence referendum. He
repeated himself yesterday.
What this means is that the hard-
left clique that runs the labour Party
is no longer confident of achieving an
overall majority in a general election,
which could take place in months. so
in return for parliamentary support
from the scottish nationalists, a
labour administration would grant a
second independence referendum.
We already knew Mr McDonnell was
a ruthless creature with more than a
touch of the night about him. But
his willingness to break up the
312-year-old union with scotland inStephen Glover
return for a short-lived
political advantage really
takes one’s breath away.
For there is a high probability
in the existing febrile circum-
stances — with Prime Minister
Boris Johnson going down
with many scots as happily
as a bowl of cold porridge —
that the scottish nationalists
would finally fulfil their dream.
Indeed, a recent opinion poll
suggests 52 per cent of people
in scotland would plump for
independence. In the 2014
referendum, 55.3 per cent
voted against.V
OTe labour — and
get an independent
scotland. Messrs
Corbyn and
McDonnell might as well paint
this slogan on the side of their
battle bus during any forth-
coming election.
In reality, the labour hier-
archy is abandoning scotland
to the snP. As recently as 2010,
labour won 41 seats there.
This dramatically fell to one in
the 2015 election, before rising
to seven in 2017.
Once upon a time, labour
depended on its scottish seats
to govern in Westminster. Mr
McDonnell evidently believes
there is no chance of winning
them back, so an electoral pact
with the snP is being cooked
up as a substitute. scottish
independence is the price.
so: this is the terrible situa-
tion — terrible for Unionists
like myself, that is — in which
we find ourselves. labour is
preparing to shuffle off
scotland (and very possibly
northern Ireland, too, sincelast year Mr McDonnell
disclosed his ‘longing’ for a
united Ireland).
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson
appears hell-bent on no Deal,
which would surely have the
effect, if there is an economic
shock throughout the whole of
Britain, of hardening the hearts
at least temporarily of scots in
favour of independence.
Here it is tempting to hoist
the white flag, and accept what
may look inevitable. That is
what many in england are
doing, including, in my experi-
ence, Tories who a decade ago
were solid Unionists.
If the scots want to go their
own way, let them. That is an
argument one now hears from
lots of people. They say, with
some truth, that the momen-
tum towards self-government
has been gathering force for
half a century.
They also point out, again
reasonably enough, that
devolution (which, according
to one of its architects, labour(^) Cabinet Minister george
Robertson, would ‘kill nation-
alism stone dead’) has given
the snP an extra fillip.
Tory MPs won’t express their
increasing lack of enthusiasm
for the Union in public, but
such views are common. This
explains why so many are
eager to ram through no Deal
even though it could end up
shattering the United
Kingdom. They think Brexit is
a greater prize than holding
great Britain together.
A very depressing finding in a
recent Yougov poll was that
63 per cent of Tory Party
members believe that scotland
leaving the UK would be an
acceptable price to pay for
achieving Brexit.
speaking for myself, I would
cheerfully consign Brexit to
the dustbin if that guaranteed
a permanent union between
england and scotland, which
has been a huge force for good
in the world. But I accept such
a deal is not on offer.
Brexit is almost certain to
happen, probably a pretty hard
one. And so Unionists will have
to persuade the scots that the
relationship forged in 1707, and
all our shared history and
common sacrifices since then,
have more enduring value than
our fleeting 46-year-old
membership of the eU.
If the sky does not fall in post-
Brexit — and I am sure it won’t
— then it should be possible to
convince scots that the UK
has a bright and prosperous
economic future.
They should be reminded
that, per head of the popula-
tion, they receive about 20 per
cent more on public services
compared with england. Is
such an advantageous state of
affairs really likely to persist if
scotland leaves the Union?
should it opt for independ-
ence and re-apply for eU
membership, scotland would
probably be required to join the
euro, and would certainly have
a hard border with england.
Do scots really want that?
All these and other argu-
ments must be deployed by
such people as Ruth Davidson,
the very able Tory leader north
of the border, and Boris
Johnson, who should make
saving the Union his priority
once Brexit is out of the way.
The two of them will have to
find a way of getting on better.
Despite his plummy southern
vowels, I don’t see why Boris
can’t employ his charms suc-
cessfully in scotland, and dem-
onstrate he is not the Right-
wing fiend and buffoon of snP
and labour demonisation.
Above all, he must make clear
there is no question of another
independence referendum —
the last one was described by
the then snP leader, Alex
salmond, as a ‘once in a gener-
ation opportunity’ — at least
until the after-shocks of Brexit
have died down.
T
He hope is the scots
will be able to take a
more settled view of
the Union after it has
become clear that life for
Britain outside the eU is not
the calamity so many predict.
Of course, if I am wrong, and
in five years the UK economy is
doing less well than its eU
counterparts, the argument for
independence will strengthen.
But I am optimistic.
To return to my question: is
scottish independence inevi-
table? Almost certainly, if there
is a labour-led government. A
second referendum would be
granted, and take place imme-
diately after the divisiveness of
Brexit, and before any benefits
of leaving the eU are evident.
But all is not lost if Boris
Johnson emerges in one piece
from the storm about to engulf
him. If he resists endemic Tory
pessimism about the Union,
and fights passionately for its
survival, great Britain may yet
continue to exist.
In her final months as
prime minister, Theresa
May managed to lengthen
her tenure past those of
gordon Brown, neville Chamberlain and
the Duke of Wellington. speculation
about toppling Boris Johnson means he
must survive until mid-november to
avoid coming last behind george
Canning. He died in office in 1827 after
only four months.
RENEWING her acquaintance with Corpo-
ral Cruachan IV, the regimental mascot
at Balmoral, the Queen was relieved at
his good behaviour. Last year the shame-
less Shetland relieved himself in the
royal presence and in 2017 he tried
to eat her bouquet. Why wasn’t he
demoted to private?
sTRICTlY’s Danny John-Jules mocks
the show’s jinx where dancing
contestants indulge in affairs with
each other, telling BBC2’s Victoria
Derbyshire: ‘When I walked through the
door I said, “I’ve come for the curse! I’ve
been trying to get rid of the missus for
three years!”’ Does wife Petula langlais
find this hilarious?
THE return of Spitting
Image revives uncom-
fortable memories
for David Steel, pic-
tured mercilessly
lampooned as a weak
midget in David
Owen’s pocket. ‘It was
funny but it was
wrong,’ he says, insist-
ing that he and Owen
were firm friends. But he added: ‘The drip,
drip, drip made it a damaging portrayal.’
JAMes Runcie, BBC Radio 4’s arts
commissioning editor, eulogises daughter
Charlotte’s memoir salt On Your Tongue
as ‘a bloody good book’. so good it
was selected for Radio 4’s coveted Book
of the Week slot. not guilty, insists
James, saying: ‘I was not in the room
when it was done.’
POSH thespian Simon Williams, now play-
ing a financial adviser in The Archers,
fondly recalling landing the role of
upper-class James Bellamy in the 1970s
series Upstairs, Downstairs, credits his
public school, saying: ‘If I’d learnt any-
thing at Harrow, it was how to put on a
wing collar and be bloody-minded with
servants – it’d be a shoo-in, surely. It was
my lucky day.’
lIVeRPOOl’s Teutonic manager Jurgen
Klopp tells Radio 5 live he watches re-
runs of the Us sitcom Friends to improve
his english, explaining: ‘It’s very easy to
understand... it’s easy to follow for
germans.’ surely his next mission is to
learn scouse.
EX-EastEnder Shane Ritchie, about to tour
in John Osborne’s classic The Entertainer,
grandly claims he’s more qualified to play
Archie Rice than Laurence Olivier or Ken-
neth Branagh, saying: ‘The one thing I
have over them is that I’ve played thea-
tres where it’s been really difficult.’ As
they might ask in the Queen Vic: ‘Is he
having a giraffe?’
Ephraim
Hardcastle
Email: [email protected]
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