Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Scottish nationalists aren’t alone in seeing independence as an opportunity

(Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

It’s not every day a supporter of Scottish independence is in the running for a peerage, least of all from a Tory government. So no doubt the SNP will be congratulating Mark Littlewood, who could soon be Lord Littlewood thanks to Liz Truss’s resignation honours. The outgoing director of the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) has distinguished himself in the world of London think tanks, where most are as uninterested in the fate of the Union as they are uninformed about Scottish politics. Not Littlewood, who is relaxed about the prospect of the Scots breaking away. 

During a February 2017 appearance on Question Time, he told the Glasgow audience: ‘I see no reason why Scotland can’t take its place as a proud independent nation.’ (In a demonstration of the BBC’s notorious Unionist bias, Littlewood was one of three pro-independence voices on the five-member panel, alongside the senior SNP politician John Swinney and nationalist luvvie Val McDermid.)

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