Pete Wishart: Where are those ‘broad shoulders of the Union’ now?

There will be no rallies outside Queen Elizabeth House or street parties in our towns and cities. There will be no Better Together leaders telling us how we haven’t had it so good or Scottish newspapers adorned with Unionist commentators telling us how life has improved in Scotland as a consequence of remaining part of their UK.

On marking their “decade of Union”, there is nothing other than an apologetic, embarrassed void with no attempt to try to suggest any great achievements for Scotland as part of a new golden age ushered in by a No vote.

READ MORE: Scottish political leaders mark 10 year anniversary of indyref

They know that self-ordained silence is probably the best strategy and have quickly concluded it’s best not to provoke Scots by trying to suggest that things have got significantly better for our nation as a result of our decision to stay in their Union.

The best they can offer the debate 10 years on is to try to claim things would be even worse if we had won, with the suggestion that Scots are uniquely incapable of making a success out of their independence. For Unionists, this is the best that Scotland can be and we should be eternally grateful that we continue to live off the generosity and largesse of the UK state.

There isn’t, and never has been, a positive case for the Union only a portent of doom if we dare to think that conditions would be better if we had the temerity to run our own country ourselves. Such is the poverty of the No case 10 years on this is about the best they can do and the only offer as way of a “success”.

But let’s try to be helpful and remind our Better Together friends of some of the main features of a No Scotland 10 years on.

First, we would have to acknowledge the decade of misery with the endless austerity inflicted upon us by governments we didn’t vote for led by people of whom we thoroughly disapprove.

Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have overseen a decade of disastrous Conservative mismanagement that peaked with the mini-budget that practically crashed our economy. We observed Johnson partying as Covid ravaged the country and we are still at the sharp end of a mortgage crisis courtesy of Truss.

It would be a brave Better Together spokesperson who would claim that Scotland should be thankful it kept its macro-political management in the hands of these absurd characters.

And of course, the highlight of this “decade of Union” is their Brexit. None of us involved in the referendum campaign will ever forget the Better Together claim that the only way for Scotland to remain part of the EU was to vote No.

The EU was an iconic indyref issue and the No side repeatedly asserted that if we voted for independence we would be booted out of the EU.

Ten years on and we are out. The ludicrous Better Together claim that a Scotland already in the EU and compliant with all EU legislation and regulation would be put out was believed by many Scots and EU nationals that lived and worked here.

READ MORE: Stephen Flynn: The Scottish independence movement is like the sea

Maybe Unionists could list all the Brexit benefits they’ve been able to secure for Scotland since we left. Perhaps by telling Scotland how ending freedom of movement has enriched our economy, benefitted our businesses and social services.

They can perhaps highlight the opportunities for young Scots to live, work and love freely across a continent. I wager that no-one among the former ranks of Better Together will even start to try to suggest that Brexit has been anything other than a disaster for Scotland that no UK party is even trying to put right.

But we’ve been able to rely on the “broad shoulders” of the UK, right? We were repeatedly told that we would need them to allow the UK to manage our resources on our behalf and we would always be able to rely on them when things got tough.

I’m sure ordinary Scots would like to know how these famous broad shoulders have helped marshal our enormous energy resource and made bills so much cheaper with their efficient stewardship of our reserves.

Pensioners freezing in their homes this winter will be raising a glass and thanking their lucky stars that our ongoing participation in the UK has saved their winter fuel allowance in energy-rich Scotland.

And of course we in Scotland are now “leading” the UK given we voted to stay? That was what we were encouraged to do rather than leave in the heady days of the indyref campaign.

Such is our influence that the first thing David Cameron did minutes after winning the referendum was to emasculate Scottish MPs by imposing his ludicrous and unworkable “English Votes for English Laws” on Scottish MPs.

We are also so leading the UK that we are apparently in a voluntary union that we can never leave. Perhaps it would be best not to mention the Vow and all those powers that were going to flow to Scotland as part of a new UK. I must have missed the “near federalism” that was going to emerge out of a No victory.

Instead we are fighting to save our Parliament from repeated and sustained attack from a UK determined to put Scotland in its place. Our democracy is under attack like never before as a result of their Internal Market Act and never before used measures such as Section 35s.

READ MORE: Study: Scots believe leaving UK and joining EU is better for country

We are so near federalism that our objections to UK legislation where we have responsibilities are totally ignored and dismissed with the near collapse of the Sewel Convention.

With all these successes, I really don’t get why Unionists and former Better Together partners are not commissioning statues of David Cameron and Blair MacDougall as the nation’s saviours.

Unionists will not be out celebrating because there is little to celebrate. They won’t be listing the achievements of this “decade of Union” because they would be hard-pressed to find any. They will do anything possible to play down the last decade and ensure that we never get another opportunity to vote on our future.

They know that after the miserable experience of the last decade, they will almost certainly get beaten. Unionists will be quiet this week – as they should be.