Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

The SNP’s howls of outrage at PMQs

[Credit: UK parliament]

Indyref dominated today’s PMQs. The Supreme Court has ruled out Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for a wildcat referendum, she must now proceed with Westminster’s blessing. Howls of outrage were heard from the SNP. Eight of its members stood up to complain that they felt trapped in the union against their will. 

Rarely have the Scots Nats made such a splash at PMQs and their exposure today did them no favours. When a party surges in popularity, the quality of its MPs declines and it’s clear that many safe Scottish seats have fallen into the hands of incompetent duffers. Few SNP members in Westminster can craft a memorable phrase. Some struggle to ask a brief question without notes. Many are lifelong gym-dodgers. And their personal stylings are eccentric. The most eye-catching member, Chris Law, wears a ponytail and a brown tweed suit so he looks like a classics master who works in the entertainment industry after school. 

The SNP doesn’t care about the union or independence. They just want the loot.

Their leader, Ian Blackford, is a notorious windbag who warned the PM that ‘democracy is now at stake’. He said the notion of the UK as ‘a voluntary union of nations is now dead and buried’. This fatalism helps to explain why the SNP seems so charmless and unlovable to neutral observers. Voters prefer a positive message. And the party suffers from a collective persecution complex. Allan Dorans pleaded with the PM not to ‘keep us shackled and imprisoned in this involuntary union’. Amy Callaghan received some mild Tory heckling and reacted as if she were being shoved into a well. ‘Don’t shout me down. Don’t shout me down!’ she cried.

Politically, their argument is difficult to answer. Rishi ‘no-mandate’ Sunak is denying Scotland a plebiscite despite the SNP’s recent string of election victories. The PM came to the chamber well-prepared and used his adroit memory and his facility with statistics to see off his foes.

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