Alex Massie Alex Massie

Scottish nationalists need a plan B – but so do Unionists

The SNP has become so accustomed to setting the agenda that the situation in which it presently finds itself – one of uncertainty tinged with the mildest dose of ennui – is modestly disconcerting. Nicola Sturgeon played all the right notes during her conference speech yesterday but there was still something perfunctory about her address. The delegates liked it but it wasn’t greeted with the kind of joyous rapture prompted by Ms Sturgeon’s previous conference speeches. She still believes in a place called independence, of course, it’s just that she doesn’t know – and, worse, cannot say – when it will next be glimpsed. It exists, of course, but seeing how you get there is harder than it used to be. 

From 2011 to 2017, the nationalists set the agenda. It was they who made the running. If Westminster did not always, as Alex Salmond had promised, ‘dance to a Scottish jig’, it remained the case that relations between Edinburgh and London were largely and most of the time dictated from the Scottish capital, not the great imperial metropolis. 

That is no longer the case. For the time being, the SNP is a party to which things happen, not a party that makes things happen. Brexit is beyond its purview and control. And Brexit, it is clear, is the horse the SNP still thinks can be ridden to eventual glory. The time is not now and it may not be tomorrow either but it will arrive. Sturgeon remains sure that Brexit will prove a disaster and that when this is apparent the Scottish people will demand a second referendum on independence. 

Maybe so, though as wise heads have been observing lately the SNP tends to run into trouble when it assumes its analysis is shared by everyone else. There are some within the party who think a Plan B should be developed just in case Brexit doesn’t prove the winning calamity the party hopes it will.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in