TONY Blair has said that it is “absolutely bloody obvious” that Brexit will make the case for Scottish independence stronger.
Speaking to Holyrood Magazine, the former UK prime minister, suggested that Scotland may well have been independent by now if devolution had not been established in 1999.
But following the 2016 Brexit referendum vote, in which 62% of Scots vote for Remain, Blair believes the argument in favour of independence has been strengthened.
“I’m not saying it will happen, because I still think there are very strong arguments against it, and obviously I’m not in favour of it, even after Brexit, if we do Brexit, but you know, I think when I said this before people criticised it, but it seems to me absolutely bloody obvious, if Scotland is in favour of staying in Europe, and you wrench the UK out of Europe, then yep, people who are arguing for independence are going to have another dimension to their argument”, he said.
“It doesn’t mean to say I agree with it, but it’s bound to have an impact.
“The thing that’s most frustrating to me about politics today is that we’re not arguing about the right things.”
“We’re arguing about national identity, when it really isn’t the answer to anything, it really isn’t.”
Blair has consistently urged the Tory government to extend Article 50 and a hold a second referendum on the UK’s potential withdrawal from the EU.
Commenting on devolution, the former Labour leader said: “I think if I had any regret, I would have looked at more ways to keep Scotland and the UK feeling more culturally aligned.
“But having said that, I think people forget that there was a huge amount of pressure for devolution as an alternative to independence and if we hadn’t offered that alternative, you might have had an independent Scotland by now.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel