Penny Mordaunt has again used a despatch box outing to leave opposition members calling for an ambulance.
Yesterday afternoon, her seemingly-innocent gaze turned away from her usual Labour victims to the SNP’s Deidre Brock. The Leader of the House recalled the way the SNP turned their back on the 2014 Independence poll result, and their disdain for democracy when voting against an EU referendum:
“SNP Members try to paint themselves as the defenders of democracy, despite ignoring the result of the referendum and despite their voting to deny the people of Scotland and the whole UK their say on whether to be part of the EU – I have brought that Hansard with me, too. I remind the House that the SNP was the only party to vote against the EU referendum.”
Ouch…
The SNP’s Depute Leader John Swinney has been so moved by the death of Her Majesty that he’s spent the weekend sounding more like a Scottish Tory than Douglas Ross. Yesterday Swinney spoke about how Scotland occupies an “absolutely central constitutional position within the United Kingdom”, moving far away from the SNP’s usual moaning that Scotland is a put-upon nation with no voice, no power and no influence over the country:
“I thought that when I watched the accession council in London yesterday because right at the heart of it was the significance of Scotland’s place within the Union and the extraordinary significance that was attached to that and the declarations and commitments that the King made and the fact the Secretary of State for Scotland, the First Minister of Scotland, the Lord Advocate of Scotland, the Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, were signatories to the documents which essentially facilitate the accession.”
This morning, Swinney went even further in irritating the most ardent of Scottish nationalists, stating the SNP would continue to have the UK monarch be Head of State in the event of independence, as they promised during the 2014 referendum:
“The monarch should be the head of state of an independent Scotland. It’s what we argued in the referendum in 2014 and it’s what we will continue to argue.”
Will the death of the Queen accidentally cause a cooling of temperatures in the Scottish independence debate?
See also: Sturgeon Admits SNP Has No Independence Plan if Supreme Court Rejects Legality
Nicola Sturgeon has just unveiled her independence referendum bill, which sets a firm date for the SNP’s desired ballot: the 18th October, 2023. The very theoretical question would be identical to 2014’s “Should Scotland be an independent country?” – unsurprising given when the Remain campaign tried copying this the Electoral Commission said no on the grounds it gives a boost to the ‘yes’ side. Sturgeon has confirmed the Scottish Lord Advocate will refer the bill to the UK Supreme Court this afternoon in an attempt to confirm the legality of the bill.
If the Supreme Court decides the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the power to hold the referendum without a UK government-approved Section 30 order, Sturgeon says it will be the “fault of Westminster legislation, not the court“, and finally prove Scotland is locked in a union against its will. If all else fails, Sturgeon threatens that the SNP will turn the next election into “a de facto referendum“, by standing on the single-issue platform of independence. A damp squib of a threat given that’s the exact same platform the SNP has used to fight every national election upon since its foundation…
Ahead of Nicola Sturgeon unveiling her new “route map” to Scottish Independence later today, new FoI requests from Scotland in Union have revealed the SNP has already massively ramped up its staffing resources to prepare for separation, even without the legal consent of Westminster. The number of civil servants working on the independence blueprint has jumped from 11 to 20, nearly doubling since the last reports in January, with the total estimated cost to the taxpayer now hitting £1.2 million a year. Not to mention the £20 million already earmarked for holding the referendum itself…
Scotland in Union director Alastair Cameron said:
“This revelation demonstrates a totally unacceptable waste of taxpayers’ money by the SNP. These are senior, highly-paid and expert civil servants who could be devoting their time to pressing matters such as reducing NHS waiting times or closing the attainment gap in our schools. Instead, they have been tasked by SNP ministers with working on a blueprint to divide the people of Scotland.”
It was only a month ago when the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned the Scottish Government could face a £3.5 billion hole in its finances by 2026 if it didn’t stop overspending. Yesterday Sturgeon told Scots the only way to avoid the global cost of living crisis is to go independent – by the looks of things at every measure IndyRef2’s already making things worse…
Nicola Sturgeon has accused the UK Government of using Brexit to deliberately make Scotland poorer, in an attempt to block independence. Mr Blackadder, I have a cunning plan…
Delivering her closing remarks to SNP conference (from her living room) this afternoon, Sturgeon said:
“Westminster will use all that damage that they have inflicted as an argument for yet more Westminster control. By making us poorer, they’ll say we can’t afford to be independent. By cutting our trade with the EU, they’ll say we are too dependent on the rest of the UK. By causing our working population to fall, they’ll say the country is ageing too fast.”
She added that “no-one is saying there won’t be challenges to overcome“, though promised that the SNP “will set those out openly and honestly.” Westminster’s plot to make Scotland poorer currently involves subsidising their spending by millions and spending £2,200 per head…
