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Is David Cameron going to be the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

Monday, 12th October 2009

Could David Cameron be the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Clearly we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but... Some regular commenters will hope so since this would, depending upon your political preferences, either be the long-awaited national awakening or an opportunity to put the uppity Jocks in thier place and see how many bannocks that butters.

I'm indebted to Joan McAlpine for alerting me to Jackie Ashley's column making exactly this case. Not making it persuasively but making it nevertheless. Now, granted, Ashley's piece appears to be a curious mash-up of SNP and Labour talking points designed to suggest that the only patriotic vote is a Labour vote but that actually gives her article some value.

Regular readers will know that I think David Cameron should meet Alex Salmond half-way. There should be a referendum on independence and it should happen soon and be a simple Yea or Nay question. There's a perfectly respectable case for independence and an equally respectable, and patriotic, case for maintaining the Union.

Sentient people appreciate this. Sadly, though hardly surprisingly, such people seem to be in short supply in the Scottish Labour party. How else to explain Jim Murphy's proclamation that "Labour's campaign - Vote SNP, Get Tory - will put this issue centre stage between now and the General Election."? There are many things that could be said about this, but the first is that this is stupefyingly ignorant. As J Arthur Macnumpty points out there are actually only three seats in which this could be considered somewhat true.

Anyway, a referendum won't be the end of the world. If I were an SNP strategist I'd like the idea of a referendum a whole lot more than a referendum itself. The notion that, as Ashley argues, a euro-sceptic Tory party that's also squeezing budgets north of the border, is enough to be a game and constitution-changing breaker seems mildly far-fetched to me. At the moment there is no majority for independence and I rather doubt that Cameron* is sufficiently horrid as to change that calculation.

We resisted several offers of Union - some of them peaceful! - for some time. I think that we're also likely to resist the offer of independence. But for as long as Fat Eck is the only one calling for the people to be given their say he has a decent, even reasonable, case.

Again, as long-time readers know I'm pretty agnostic on the independence question. There's an intellectual case to be made for it for sure, but there's also a sentimental case to be made for the Union. And, for sure, vice versa. It's possible that these positions have switched positions in the time since our faithers were young laddies.

But, yes, Cameron should support a referendum. What, apart from the country, does he have to lose?

*Caermon's Unionism is instinctive, I think, because he's also the kind of Englishman who probably considers himself British, not English. After all, his father was born in Huntly. Cameron, as befits his name, is pretty Scottish too even if he, sensibly, never mentions this. So yes, Tartan Raj scorekeepers, Dave is, sort of, one of us too. Gotta problem with that?

PS: You should also read Joan's column on Iain Duncan Smith (born in Edinburgh! When will Olde England be free of these meddlesome Jocks?) and Easterhouse and Welfare Reform. I hope her conclusion is too pessimistic and suggest that you should think it is too.

Filed under: Britain (737 more articles) , Cameron (227 more articles) , Iain Duncan Smith (148 more articles) , Scotland (499 more articles) , Unionism (50 more articles)

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Craig Strachan

October 12th, 2009 6:56am Report this comment

Yes, by all means let's have the first failed independence referendum in 2011. It'll be fun watching Alex Salmond do his Rene Levesque: a la prochaine fois!

It'll probably take three goes to kill the idea stone dead, so we might as well get started.

Rhoda Klapp

October 12th, 2009 9:48am Report this comment

So why does only a part of the union get a vote? Is there some conspiracy that the voters in England never get to choose their fate?

Submariner

October 12th, 2009 10:37am Report this comment

Rhoda, of course there is.

Fergus Pickering

October 12th, 2009 10:54am Report this comment

Do you know, I thought this was about Europe but it's only the mouldy Scotch. Do what you like, lads. You can belong to the UK, and share a proud history, or you can step aboard the good ship EU, which has no bloody history atall, and, let us profoundly hope, no future either. And you can invent a great load of Scotch history of the Mel Gibson sort. Or you could embrace your only great novelist(well, maybe RLS) except that he doesn't tell you the bullshit you want to hear. Salmond is quite a good act, but the suspiciom grows that he takes himself seriously. Here's tae us. Wha's like us? Damn few and they're all deid. And have you ever asked WHY they're all deid, eh?

egh

October 12th, 2009 10:56am Report this comment

So we don't get to choose independence from our common enemies - just independence from each other?

Ever hear of Divide and Conquer?

Sir Arnold Robinson

October 12th, 2009 12:13pm Report this comment

Since independence for Scotland would effectively destroy the UK, shouldn't all UK citizens have a say in any referendum on the subject?

It's reasonable to assume that the existence of an independent Scotland would strengthen calls for an independent Wales to follow suit, especially as an English-Welsh alliance would be seen as less desirable in Wales ("London dominated" etc.) than the current union. And where would that leave England? And the Unionists and Republicans in NI? This is before we even start to think about the relationship of each of the component countries to the various intra-governmental organisations the UK is currently signed up to.

There are simply too many consequences to such a constitutional upheavel to leave this question to the Scots.

Anne Wotana Kaye

October 12th, 2009 12:31pm Report this comment

The way that nutter Brown is going on, it is more likely that Gordon and his present crazy gang will be the last prime minister and government.

dearieme

October 12th, 2009 12:47pm Report this comment

I hope that Scottish residents of England (and Wales and NI) get a vote.

Wilhelm

October 12th, 2009 2:02pm Report this comment

Alex

Calling Alex Salmond '' fat eck '' is name calling, its the kind of behaviour a 5 year old uses in the playground, its truly childish and pathetic.

Scots independence is a Win Win situation which you dont seem to have the mental capacity to grasp , Alex.

Scotland gets independence and England will never, ever, never, ever get a liebour Scottish junta running the country again, comprende ? Huzzah.

Kittler

October 12th, 2009 6:26pm Report this comment

A consequence of a referendum, which results in a dissolution, that would be welcomed by many on this site, is that England (plus some other bits) or whatever it may be called will need to apply to the EU for re admittance and will probably be vetoed.

Fergus Pickering

October 12th, 2009 8:41pm Report this comment

Kittler, what are you talking about? That is pure invention. And even if it were not, nobody is going to veto England because England pays so much money IN. They might veto Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the whole celtic whingeing, cringing, begging lot of them, because (of course) they are money OUT and always will be.

Ray

October 12th, 2009 9:55pm Report this comment

Fergus - it's eery and yet telling, but you are not the only person to catch sight of this headline and instinctively assume it must be a piece about Cameron being handed his P45 by EU President Blair no sooner has Samantha hung up her M&S spring collection in the Downing Street wardrobes.

Noa Zrk

October 12th, 2009 10:27pm Report this comment

A Scots referendum on Independence will simply decide whether they collect their dole cheques directly from England or via the EU. Like other reader I thought this was about the absorption of England into the latter? What price this happening? soon? Will we then be in the position of the Confederacy, seeking to secede? If so I for one will be looking for England's own Robert E Lee. The Celts would be welcome to join the cause.

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