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Scotland’s First Minister says she is not bluffing in threatening another independence referendum unless the UK stays in the European single market after Brexit. Nicola Sturgeon offers this by way of a “compromise”:
if Theresa May ensures a “soft” departure from the EU then Scotland will remain in the United Kingdom, for now at least.
There is no doubt that Miss Sturgeon’s voice must be heard in the Brexit debate. One of Mrs May’s first acts on becoming Prime Minister last July was to travel to Edinburgh for talks. Under the devolution agreement, strengthened since Scotland decided to remain in the UK, the Scottish government must be consulted about matters that affect its future; and clearly Brexit will have a big impact on Scotland, where a clear majority voted to stay in the EU, as it will in the rest of the country.
But it is hard for Scotland’s government to play a full role in deciding the best way of negotiating our way out of the EU if Ms Sturgeon continues to threaten the break-up of the UK at every juncture. The SNP, of course, wants separation; that is the party’s creed. However, it is also has an obligation to administer the country in the best interests of its people.
“It frankly beggars belief that so many months on from the referendum we still don't know answers to basic questions”Nicola Sturgeon on Brexit
To that end,
as Mrs May observed in her Sky TV interview on Sunday, retaining privileged access to the single market and controlling our borders are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Much will depend on what our EU partners are prepared to offer and we do not know what that is yet. But whatever the outcome of the negotiations, it is hard to see what benefit would accrue to the Scots were the UK to leave the EU and Scotland at the same time cede from the Union.
It would lose both its major trading partners in one go, since it would not be allowed just to carry on as a member of the EU without applying to rejoin. Moreover, there would be a hard border with England, which is far and away Scotland’s biggest market.
After the Brexit vote last June, Miss Sturgeon said another independence vote was inevitable; now she has backed away because she knows she would lose it and scupper the separatist cause for generations. If she really has the interests of her fellow Scots at heart then she would drop this empty threat and help Mrs May deliver a Brexit in the interests of the entire nation, Scotland included.
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