by Paul Kavanagh
There is little certainty left in what passes for statecraft in this so-called United Kingdom. There is certainty, but none of it is stately, none of it is craft. There’s the certainty that the British political establishment act only in their own short term interests. There’s the certainty that British politicians put the needs of their own careers first, followed by the needs of their party, and only a long way behind comes the needs of the country. But most of all, there is the certainty that what Scotland needs and wants doesn’t even register in their calculations.
In a few weeks time, Scotland faces being taken out of the EU against its will. This is despite the repeated claims from opponents of independence in 2014 that the only way in which Scotland could retain its EU membership was by voting to remain a part of the UK. We’re constantly told that the EU vote was a UK-wide vote, that the UK voted as a whole and will leave as a whole. But that ignores the fact that Scotland is only a part of that UK in the first place because the very same people who are now taking us out of the EU told Scotland’s voters to vote against independence in order to remain a part of the EU. And now those same people ignore, marginalise, and sideline Scotland’s interests in the desperate fantasising that passes for the UK’s Brexit negotiations.