Those of
us who, following the projections contained in the celebrated White
Paper Scotland's Future, were not already convinced of the
SNP's collective inability to count, should have been convinced by
the First Minister's contention that losing her overall majority at
Holyrood could be described as winning convincingly.
True, the
SNP got more votes than anyone else, but that still left the anti-SNP
majority very little changed from the Referendum almost two years
ago. It would be nice to think that in the not too far distant future
the nationalists' claim to a monopoly of Scottishness would be seen
for the nonsense it is and attention could instead be returned to the
delivery of public services. Health, education and law & order
cannot indefinitely play second fiddle to the demand for
constitutional change.
Meanwhile
we can all turn our attention to the EU Referendum next month, where
we are told by the SNP that it will be an outrage if Scotland is
taken out of the EU against its will.
Let us
leave aside for the moment the uncomfortable fact that Scotland as
such is not a member of the EU, the UK is, and that if Scotland had
voted to leave the UK it would therefore have been voting to leave
the EU even more briskly.
What is
interesting, given the tied opinion polls, is the prospect that a
Scottish Remain vote might very well end up obliging the rest of the UK to remain in The EU against its will. Will this also be an outrage? I await enlightenment
from the First Minister but I'm not holding my breath.
Although
only a few months ago David Cameron told us we could prosper outside
the EU and he would himself lead the Leave campaign if he failed to
get reforms, we are now presented with the unedifying daily spectacle
of (mostly foreign) experts and bigwigs lined up in an orchestrated
fashion by the government to prophesy everything up to and including
the Third World War if we are foolish enough to think of leaving the
EU.
For
some reason they have not yet got round to the plagues of frogs and
locusts, but I expect they will if the poll numbers remain stubborn.
None
of these foreign experts appear to appreciate the perverseness of the
British character, which tends to make us more likely to do
something, not less, when lots of people with a vested interest are
all telling us not to do it.
For
my part the key issue is the crippling burden of supporting the
ill-starred Eurozone, of which the UK is fortunately not a member.
The
Eurozone countries have an in-built majority in the EU and can
out-vote the UK permanently, especially since Cameron's
renegotiations gave up our right to veto Eurozone measures that are
not in the UK's interest.
Already
during the Greek crisis last year we have seen the Eurozone vote to
use EU funds when non-Eurozone EU-members such as the UK were not
even present at the table. In other words they voted for us to share a
payment without bothering to consult us. Although a fudge was found
to get round this when their abuse of power was exposed, it seems
very likely to be a taste of things to come if we vote to remain.
No-one
should be under any illusion that a vote to remain is a vote for the
status quo. The status
quo in the EU is not sustainable
as the recurrent national insolvencies show. Despite the lack of a
democratic mandate, the EU elite have no option but to pursue further
integration, including political integration, for the Eurozone.
Woe
betide those EU members who do not see this integration as being in
their best interests.
I was surprised to learn from the RSPB website that the estimated UK population of grey wagtails (motacilla cinerea) is only 38,000.
