So, London’s man in Scotland (actually he seldom leaves London) has said that the forthcoming referendum on Scotland’s secession from the United Kingdom will only be an advisory vote.
According to the Governor General, Michael Moore, there will have to be a second vote on what has been sorted out between the two governments.
This is a wonderfully cynical ploy.
Scotland votes for independence and then agrees to give the unionists the chance to make the separation so unattractive that it can undemocratically pressure people into changing their mind. I’m not so sure that this is what any sensible government in London would want to do. Quite simply, they wouldn’t get away with it. But when one hears this sort of thing from Moore and Cameron saying he will defend the UK with “every fibre of his being” one has to wonder just how far they will go.
It is a rather desperate position to take so early on and has more to do the growing irrelevance of Moore’s office. This can be seen in the stance he has taken on the transfer of powers to Edinburgh. He refuses to give any more powers to the Scottish Government other than those deemed suitable by the unionist parties in the Calman Report.
It is still those rejected by the Scottish people that are making crucial decisions that affect their lives.
It has been said before but it is worth saying again – as far as the unionists are concerned the Scottish Parliament must never be allowed to succeed. It must be kept down and held back at every turn.
Moore might want to consider this. The SNP are the only majority Government within his beloved United Kingdom. He might also want to consider that as a Lib-Dem he is the Secretary of State for Scotland only because the coalition wouldn’t dare give the job to a Tory.
Unlike the coalition, the minority government in Wales or the manipulated administration at Stormont, Scotland has the only government that can claim with any veracity that they have a mandate from the people. No matter how much this sticks in the craws of the unionists, it is a fact that they ignore at their peril.
Moore’s statement, unlike the Scottish Office, shouldn’t be seen as an irrelevance. It is the start of a concerted unionist campaign which will attempt to muddy the waters and disparage independence at every opportunity. Fair enough that is their job.
However, they will have to come up with something better than this.
If the Scots vote for independence, then Westminster would do well to accept it. Because, unlike 1707 the vote will not have been taken by a “Parcel of Rogues”. And they might just find it a wee bit harder to bully and bribe their way round this one.
