IT’S only a few days since the SNP conference and Nicola Sturgeon’s speech, and already Unionist commentators are falling over themselves to persuade everyone, but mostly themselves, that she doesn’t really mean all that stuff about having another independence referendum.

There were all sorts of caveats, they opine, so clearly she doesn’t want to risk another independence referendum when there’s no sign of movement in the polls. “It’s not going to happen,” say the talking heads who have a vested interest in a referendum never happening.

To those of us who aren’t Unionists, Nicola Sturgeon’s tactic is blindingly obvious. It just seems that it’s not obvious to those who continually ask what the SNP will do about Scotland’s supposed £15 billion deficit, but who never think to ask the Westminster Governments actually responsible for creating this eye-watering deficit what they’re going to do about it. What’s Westminster going to do to invest in the Scottish economy, improve our infrastructure and give Scotland the means to attract skilled migrants and to grow our economy? What’s this Union that cares for us so much actually going to do to balance the Scottish economy and allow it to grow strong enough so that it’s capable of weathering the storms? Nothing much, is the short answer.

And silence is the response from supporters of the Union. They love to point out all the problems that they say Scotland has, but they’re not so good at offering solutions. They’re very good at creating storms, like the storm of Brexit that’s about to break on us, but they’d rather attack those who seek refuge from it than do something to prevent it. And then they tell themselves that Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t really mean it when she says that there’s going to be another independence referendum unless Scotland’s place in Europe is protected and respected.

What the SNP is clearly engaged in is a process of giving the Tory Government all the rope it needs to hang itself. Theresa May and her merry band of xenophobic Brexiteers, who’ve morphed the Tories into Ukip, are being given all kinds of opportunities to meet the demands of a Scotland that most definitely voted to remain a part of the European Union. A Scotland, moreover, that those same Conservatives were very keen to tell us back in 2014 was a much loved, respected and valued partner in a family of nations.

All that the Scottish Government expects is that the UK Government fulfils the promises and commitments that it made to Scotland in order to win the independence referendum in 2014. It was on the basis of Westminster making those vows that Scotland voted to give the UK one last chance. Westminster told Scotland that the only way we could remain a part of the EU was to vote no. It told Scotland that it was an equal partner in the UK. So, now they need to put their money where their mouths were. After the Brexit vote we were told that nothing would happen without an approach that was agreed UK-wide, but Scotland’s not even represented in the Brexit discussions.

Perhaps if Westminster was to live up to the promises that it made, then, and only then, would it have the moral authority to lecture the Scottish Government about respecting the result of the 2014 referendum. Because right now from north of the Tweed it looks like the lack of respect is coming from the banks of the Thames.

Instead of doing what they can to preserve this Union that they say they love, the Tories are taking all the opportunities offered to them and using them to hang the Union from a red white and blue bunting-bedecked lamppost. Scotland won’t be allowed to remain a part of the EU while the rest of the UK leaves. Scotland won’t be allowed to control its own immigration policy. Scotland won’t be given any special treatment.

The City of London will, however. The UK is apparently prepared to pay the EU billions to preserve the access of the financial companies of the City of London to European markets, and Scotland is going to have to pay its share of that. We’ll be dragged out of the EU with the rest of the UK into a xenophobic Tory dystopia. Eat your Brexit cereal and shut up, Scotland. The Conservative plan is to wrench us out of the EU into a chaotic and hard-right Brexit, and will secure us in the Union by destroying us. It will be the United Kingdom of chains, the Union of ruin in a desert of hope.

That’s the future that the Tories have in mind for us.

There’s still no sign of any softening of position from Theresa May. Rebuff piles upon rebuff, insult upon insult and slight upon slight. With every “no” from the Tories it becomes ever clearer that there’s only one way in which Scotland can maintain its place in Europe. As the Tories move rightwards and adopt the policies of Ukip, more and more will make the realisation that the only way that the good aspects of Britain can be preserved, our NHS, our public services, is for Scotland to make its own way in the world. Half of us are already there.

By the time that Nicola Sturgeon presents a bill for a second referendum to the Scottish Parliament, there will be no remaining doubt that an independence referendum will be the only option left. And it will be the only option left because Westminster has made it that way. That’s why Nicola Sturgeon’s speech seemed to Unionist commentators to have get-out clauses. They’re really traps for a Westminster that is walking straight into them.

The second Scottish independence referendum will take place against a backdrop of Brexit negotiations in which an arrogant, vain and self-regarding British Government will be humiliated by an EU that holds all the cards. It will take place as the pound plummets like the popularity of a Scottish Labour that once again sides with the Tories, as economic uncertainty and job losses and rising prices mark our everyday lives.

It will take place as a vicious and xenophobic right-wing Britain replaces the tolerant and progressive UK that Scotland was sold in 2014. That’s how we will make an appeal to the other half. The Union will end due to the actions of the Unionists. In her intransigence, Theresa May will unwittingly usher in a better Scotland. Voting for independence is now a moral imperative.


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