So after the events of June 8th, is independence cause dead in Scotland? I do not think so, but it has been grieviously wounded that is for sure and tho’ the party faithful will still point to the fact that the SNP got more seats and more votes than all the other parties combined, it was a pyrrhic victory, no doubt about that. Compared to the 2015 GE, the total votes cast for the SNP fell by nearly 480,000 and they lost 21 seats in total, and as a party they lost 13 percentage points of the total vote, the biggest in the UK by far and a colossal amount to drop in two years. More damaging perhaps to the cause tho’ is the loss of their two best politicians, Angus Robertson, the Deputy Leader of the SNP, the SNP House of Commons spokesperson and a politician of consummate skill and also Mr Marmite himself, ex First Minister Alec Salmond. So why did it come to this? Who is to blame? Before I get to that, you need to understand the hegemony of the Scottish National Party. There is a triumvirate at the top…First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Education Minister (and ex Party Leader) John Swinney, and the SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell, who is also married to Sturgeon. Now these three are the policy makers of the SNP and their attitude is one of “my way or the highway,” and they brook no dissent (or even questions) from the rank and file, as former heavy- hitters Kenny MacAskill and Alec Neill have found out to their cost. This troika have one goal, and one goal only…. independence, nothing, NOTHING else matters. Last September Sturgeon wrote “Independence trandescends everything….oil, national wealth, balance sheets…” So there we have it.
Their tenure of governance has been an unmitigated disaster. In Scotland we have the biggest per capita GDP deficit in Europe, it currently sits at £15bill and is estimated to rise to £16bill for 2015-16 and our economy is one bad quarter away from going into an official recession. I could write screeds here on their other failures, but I will leave you one tale. Sturgeon has made education her priority (“judge me on my education record”), and the verdict is guilty of negligence. The PISA reports have Scottish schools now ranked overall 23rd in the EU, a fall from 3rd a few years ago, but look at this….. The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) recently published a report slating the teaching of the basics in Scottish schools and bemoaning the declining performances of our pupils. What did Swinney do? Take their advice on board? Organise a root and branch review? No, he disbanded the SSLN; they will report no more.
We had an independence referendum in 2014 and Scotland voted to stay in the Union, but the SNP has never stopped banging on about it, a constant barrage of grievance and anti UK (English?) propaganda, despite polls showing that support for independence was falling, albeit slightly and crucially, support for indyref2 falling below that of independence. But she doesn’t listen…. she formally asked for article 30 to be triggered for indyref2 despite ALL indications that it would be a losing campaign IF permission was granted from Westminster. Former SNP leader Jim Sillars (along with Neill and MacAskill) beseeched her not to pursue this folly, but the lady was not for turning, and with nobody strong enough to challenge and suffer opprobrium from her, she went ahead.
The majority, the big majority of Scottish people do not want another divisive refendum, but lo, into the SNP manifesto it went.
Disaster occurred on Thursday to the SNP, but somehow she has survived with no criticism at all coming from the party faithfull. Mrs Murrell? More like Mrs Teflon. And STILL there are large swathes of the separatists demanding that as we have an SNP majority of MPs in Scotland, that Sturgeon carries on with her indyref2 plans. Are they mad? In 2014 an absolute minimum 1,800,000 votes for Yes would have given Scotland independence -they got 1,600,000- but the SNP vote in Thursday’s election numbered just over half that required figure…are the faithfully seriously expecting 850,000 people to change their minds and vote for Yes in another referendum, the very issue that caused them to desert the SNP in the first place? Really?
So what now for the SNP in general, and Nicola Sturgeon in particular? Well she needs to go away and have a massive rethink about her strategy; she must have no doubt in her own mind that right here, right now there is no appetite for independence and put that issue on the back-burner, and she needs to show some long needed humility and get back to her day job and sort this economic mess out or she may find that the next Scottish election in 2021 a further chastening experience, if she is still around then which I think is a 50-50 shout. An ongoing major problem for the unionists in Scotland is that the SNP run Scottish Government does not govern Scotland for the Scottish people, they govern on behalf of the separatist minority, with their vote-catching universal freebies like free prescriptions, free eye tests, baby boxes, free bus travel etc etc the tab for which is eventually picked up by ythe UK….Westminster bad?
When she does go, what will be her legacy? I fear that she will be remembered as the woman who single handedly reivived the fortunes of the Tory Party in Scotland.
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Twang says
The departure of the likes of Robertson, Salmond, Nicolson and Ahmed-Sheikh was a delight in the midst of a grim night.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Almost as good a pleasure as watching in delighted disbelief as the polls and the media were proved yet again to be wronger than wrong.
As a Scot living in France I have given up trying to understand what is actually happening in my Homeland, although to be honest I have given up all pretence as to knowing in any shape or form what the fuck is happening in the world right now. Glass of rosè and a siesta for me…
bricameron says
Atta boy!!
DougieJ says
I reckon most people want a strong SNP at Holyrood and Westminster, just not quite as all-powerful as it has been recently. The ‘Tory-free zone’ of Scotland was always misleading as well. Scotland is quite a small-c conservative country and doesn’t differ markedly from the rest of the UK in the British Social Attitudes Survey. The UK Tories and the SNP actually have a co-dependent relationship although both pretend otherwise. Ruth Davidson has skilfully navigated her own path, distinct from London. I personally hope she stays and isn’t lured away to ‘the big league’. Just as many are cheering the end of Tory dominance in (mainly) England, similarly the SNP losing its sense as The party of Scotland is no bad thing.
Carl says
Are there specific reasons for the decline in education standards? A new curriculum?
There will have been changes in the overall cohort of teachers with retirements and deaths and new teachers starting, but I’d imagine that most teachers working at the time of the Referendum are still working. Have they simply gone from being good teachers to bad teachers?
geacher says
The long answer is too long for a reply here, so I will give you some sound bites. My friend is a primary school teacher, so from her… there is a new thing been out for 2010 called the Cirriculum For Excellence and it is not working…too much time spent ticking boxes, not enough time spent teaching the basics, the three “Rs” as it once was called. Too much time spent on teaching the not so bright kids in order to close the attainment gap, and not enough time spent teaching the average to clever ones. As a result the attainment gap IS closing, but not in the way it was intended. No wage rise now for 7 years, and Marjory’s hours have been cut by almost one third in that time. A council tax freeze that lasted 9 years which had a direct impact into school funding. Class sizes out of control….22 in 2006, 28 last year and looks like 32 next term. 4,000 teachers less than in 2006 and college courses for teaching cut by over one third.
We are reaping what the SNP have sowed.
anton says
and they can’t even spell curriculum 🙁
Lando Cakes says
Point of order! The next Scottish elections should be sooner than 2021. The term should be 4 years. It kept being extended to 5, in order not to clash with The UK elections. Thanks to Mrs May, that’s no longer a problem…
todayoutof10 says
Hear, hear @geacher. I have worked in Education in Scotland for 17 years and my heart sinks – almost as much as standards in schools – at what has happened on the SNPs watch.
Their agenda of Corporate Parenting and GIRFEC (getting it right for every child) has turned Education, schools and teaching into something unrecognisable.
Your comment about closing the attainment gap, but in the wrong way, I fear is sadly true.
If you have a child who is doing well in school and has a trouble free classroom experience, they are very fortunate indeed. The Government’s drive to have all children educated inclusively in mainstream schools has had a terrible impact on classroom management and on the education of those caught in the crossfire.
I believe some children would be best supported in environments set up to meet their specific needs. Then we’d have more chance of getting it right for every child…. Education shouldn’t be a political hobby horse. Surely it’s too important for that? ❤️
geacher says
And Sturgeon idea of “meeting the challenges” head on is to continue to do more of the same, the very stuff that caused the problems in the first place.
dai says
They didn’t get more votes than the other parties put together, nowhere near, they were at 37%. Suggests a referendum would have zero chance. There won’t be another one, as they can’t win it even if UK government agreed