If you believe as I do that political stupidity deserves to be punished, you might take satisfaction from the election results in Scotland. But first, a little history. Almost three decades ago Labour set up the Scottish parliament, promising voters that ‘the Union will be strengthened and the threat of separatism removed’. Just eight years into the devolution experiment, the once seemingly invincible Scottish Labour lost control of its parliament to the SNP. That was in 2007 and the Nationalists have been in power ever since, relegating Labour to the fringes of Scottish politics.
Then, in 2010, the Conservatives came to power. They had opposed the creation of a Scottish parliament, predicting that it would become a bulwark of nationalism and undermine the Union, and so were well-placed to bring an end to Tony Blair’s constitutional misadventure. But the Conservatives believe in conserving things, and given the choice between a 300-year-old Union steeped in history and an 11-year-old job-creation scheme for spads, third-sector activists, and overly ambitious councillors, the party of tradition naturally went with the latter.
Labour and the Conservatives designed this monster, gave it life, made it all-powerful
In 2012, the Cameron government devolved a tranche of additional powers to the SNP-controlled legislature, and then in 2014, they gave the Nationalists a referendum on independence. In 2016, as a consolation prize for losing said referendum, they devolved yet another tranche of additional powers. Each time they told anyone who would listen that this — finally! at last! — would Stop The SNP In Its Tracks and that new income tax powers would force the Scottish government to be more fiscally responsible. Today, Scotland has the highest income tax rates in the UK and a £5 billion black hole in government finances while receiving £2,400 per capita more in public spending than England.
Which brings us to the results of this week’s Scottish parliament elections. Naturally, the SNP has won – that’s five times in a row now – and while they have fallen short of an outright majority, they have spent most of their time in office as a minority government without much trouble from the alleged opposition parties. Has Labour been rewarded for gifting their opponents a parliament and proto-state from which to undermine the UK from within? Alas, it has not. The people’s party is down to 17 seats, on 19 per cent of the vote, its worst-ever Holyrood result.
What of the Tories? The non-believers who converted to the cause of devolution. The party that went as far as to pass legislation making the Scottish parliament and Scottish government ‘permanent’ fixtures of the British constitution? Their reward must be awaiting them in Heaven because there’s no sign of it in this life. They have lost almost two-thirds of their seats and are down to just 12, on a vote share of 12 per cent, another worst-ever result. Plus, the ultimate indignity: they are now a smaller party than the Scottish Greens.
Where have the votes gone instead? They’ve been divvied up between Reform (17 seats), the Greens (15) and the Lib Dems (10). And while the SNP failed to win most of the 129 seats at Holyrood, between them and the Greens there is a pro-independence majority. This will prompt many excitable London commentators – and by ‘excitable’ I mean ‘thick, with a blue tick’ – to declare that there must be another referendum, but for the benefit of our friends in the south there has been a pro-independence majority in the Scottish parliament since 2011. More to the point, the Union is a matter reserved to Westminster.
The Scottish political establishment claimed that the majority pro-independence parliaments elected in 2016 and 2021 held a mandate for another referendum, and that Westminster’s refusal to grant one was an affront to democracy. These principled democrats have yet to explain how it is possible to acquire a mandate for the exercise of one parliament’s powers at an election to another parliament, or why the 900,000 votes secured by the SNP on Thursday should count for more than the 24 million votes that went to pro-UK parties in the general election. Devolution and the entire devolutionist mindset is a ratchet without a reverse switch for nationalism and ultimately the dismantling of Britain.
This can be seen even more starkly in Wales, where Plaid Cymru has ended a century of Labour victories to emerge as the largest party in the Senedd, with Reform in second place as the main opposition. With 16 seats between them, Labour and the Tories could just about field a rugby team but will struggle to offer serious scrutiny of a Plaid government. As in Scotland, political stupidity is being justly punished in Cardiff.
Yet even now, as they lick their wounds and lose colleagues left and right, neither Labour nor the Conservatives are prepared to admit that devolution was a historic error. That it not only inflicted grievous injury on our constitution but on their own political fortunes. That Britain’s internal enemies in the Scottish and Welsh secessionist movements are merrily working to dismantle the country from within using institutions and powers that are only at their disposal because of devolution. If getting Labour or the Tories to concede their mistakes is nigh on impossible, there is not a chance of either even considering a reversal of course.
In a country whose political class had faith in it, whose leaders believed intrinsically that it must continue to exist, the devolution experiment would have long ago been recognised for the folly and existential threat that it is. Dr. Frankenstein would understand that it was his duty to put down the hideous creature his foolishness and vanity unleashed on the world. Not so with Labour and the Conservatives. They designed this monster, gave it life, made it all-powerful, and they will recoil from doing their duty even as their creation tears them and the country apart.
For political stupidity such as this, no punishment is severe enough.
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