AS Suella Braverman descends into the language of outright fascism in the House of Commons, the democratic and moral case for Scottish independence has never been stronger.

Combined with the refusal of both Labour and the Conservatives to accept the democratically expressed will of the electorate in Scotland for another referendum on independence, it is now clear that democracy itself can only be truly safe in Scotland if this country chooses independence.

Today, a major new opinion poll was published which shows that people in Scotland overwhelmingly believe that it is Holyrood and the Scottish Government which will take decisions that are in the best interests of Scotland.

READ MORE: Scotland's scathing views on UK Government revealed in major new poll

According to the latest edition of the authoritative annual Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, which polled 1043 people across Scotland between last October and March this year, two-thirds of people in Scotland trust the Holyrood government to work in Scotland's best interests, but only a mere 22% say the same about Westminster.

Given that fieldwork for the poll was carried out before the ousting of Boris Johnson and the catastrophic premiership of Liz Truss, followed by the undemocratic anointing of Rishi Sunak, who promises a round of harsh austerity which is only happening because of Conservative mismanagement and that party's enabling of corporate greed, that 22% may well be even lower now. 

It should now be obvious to even the most obdurate that the Conservatives do not take decisions that are in Scotland's best interests, and they do not take decisions that are in the interests of the UK as a whole – they take decisions that are in the interests of the Conservative Party, its wealthy donors and the free-market fundamentalist “think tanks” with which the Conservatives are locked in a danse macabre.

One of the most striking findings from the survey is that a massive 75% of people in Scotland think that it's the Scottish Parliament which should have the most influence in determining how Scotland is run, compared to just 14% who believe it should be Westminster. That 14% represents the core support of hardline British nationalist extremism, and it is clearly wildly out of touch with mainstream Scottish political opinion.

However, the great threat to Scottish democracy within the UK derives from the fact that it's that unrepresentative 14% which is highly influential within a Conservative Party which enjoys a huge Westminster majority on the back of seats won elsewhere in the UK using an unfair and unrepresentative first-past-the-post voting system.

The Conservatives will not hesitate to use that majority to override the desire of Scotland for greater powers for the Scottish Parliament – and for all their cant about how much they value the Union, for the Tories, Scotland is politically expendable. They will continue to introduce measures that allow Westminster to circumvent the Scottish Parliament and will deny that they are undermining or hollowing out the devolution settlement even though it is blatantly obvious that that is what they are doing.

An opinion poll has clearly shown that a large majority in Scotland want the powers of Holyrood to be strengthened, but that will not prevent the Conservatives from continuing to mount their sleekit attacks on the devolution settlement. 

This is the same Conservative Party that cherry-picks opinion polls in order to claim that most people in Scotland don't want another independence referendum, despite the unarguable fact that we all knew what we were voting for in the Holyrood elections of May 2021, and the voters of Scotland chose to elect a Scottish Parliament with its largest pro-independence majority ever and a clear mandate to deliver another independence referendum.

The Conservatives pick and choose which opinion polls they want to elevate to the status of Holy Writ, just as they do with the verdicts of the people of Scotland as expressed through the ballot box.

The only votes and the only polls that the Conservatives demand must be respected are those which deliver a result that is to their liking.

However, what this most recent Scottish Social Attitudes Survey clearly demonstrates is that the people of Scotland believe it's the Scottish Parliament that takes decisions in Scotland's interests, and it's the Scottish Parliament that they want to have the greatest say in how Scotland is governed.

It also shows that people in Scotland have faith in Scotland's own institutions to deliver for the country. From there, it's only a short step to most people in Scotland trusting in the Parliament of an independent Scotland being best placed to deliver for Scotland.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

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