BAE workers rally for “no”, September 2014. Trade unions were vital to the vote to keep Britain united. Photo Workers.
Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation is a blow to the separatist project. It comes at a time when working class struggle on wages and conditions shows a unity across Britain that simply undermines any separatist notions.
She became First Minister after the 2014 referendum when 55 per cent voted for unity, 45 per cent against. For eight years her repeated demands for separation failed to shift opinion one inch.
Deluded
Lord Ashcroft’s 14 February 2023 poll found that 56 per cent supported unity, 44 per cent separatism. Yet she claimed in her resignation statement, “there is now majority support for independence.” Deluded to the last.
‘The obsession with separation has been bad for Scotland…’
The obsession with the diversion of separation has been bad for Scotland. Prioritising another referendum to break up Britain meant indifference to the real problems facing the people of Scotland.
So now Scotland’s health services are in crisis, with record waiting times. The attainment gap between pupils from the poorest and richest families is just as huge. Council budgets are being cut, again. Drug deaths remain the highest in Europe. Life expectancy is going down. And transport is a mess across Scotland.
Her Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was part of the separation agenda. But again it showed how Holyrood MSPs were mostly out of touch with the majority of Scottish people.
Last straw
Several hundred people attended a vigorous rally in George Square Glasgow on 5 February opposing the Bill. Public opposition seemed to be a last straw – Sturgeon and her backers had expected a public up in arms against a London government forbidding their divisive law.
The undemocratic usurping of the next general election for use as a separatist “de facto” referendum faced opposition by the people and within the SNP. So, after the Supreme Court ruled “no Indyref 2”, they couldn’t use the next general election.
Relentless
Relentless campaigning against separatism by dedicated organisations – the firm stance on workers’ unity by the trade unions who voted “no” in 2014 – have all contributed to this very serious blow to pro-EU separatism.
Now, with the separatist tide receding, those who have supported the SNP should turn to working for the nobler cause of rebuilding Britain. This is an opportunity to develop and put into practice ideas for improvements across all spheres of society, across Britain. Now there should be a surge of real activity.