BY the time you read this, the men and women in grey suits will have spoken.
Consequently, the date of Theresa May’s political demise may have jumped forwards to Monday – the day after the results of European elections in which her party’s set for a gubbing by the Brexit Party south of the Border and the SNP north of it. In the frenzied manner of British public life, the Prime Minister’s going has been protracted and overwrought, and the melodrama will continue a while yet ... but on two very different political cultures – as the Euro poll is set to highlight.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Voting SNP shows Scotland has had enough of being ignored
London-based commentators and most leading Tories are suddenly lining up to tell us how hopeless Theresa May’s “super Brexit deal” is and how inept its timing. Most Scots would agree – but to us this deal only sounds as unworkable, empty and desperate as the first lame attempt. It took a while to hit the back wall, but the political car crash was inevitable. Most Scots saw that straight away.
We never bought May’s “strong and stable” pitch, though much of England did. Thus, voters there – unaccountably and suddenly horrified by May’s ineptitude – will punish her today by shifting en masse to the Brexit Party, displacing from the myriad shortcomings of British democracy and agreeing to blame Europe for everything.
Today in Scotland, by contrast, most progressives will reject all Theresa May has ever stood for and back politicians who believe Scotland should take its place in Europe as a new independent state – the Green and SNP candidates.
Same crisis, entirely different diagnosis and response by the largest tranche of voters. There could hardly be a bigger demonstration of the different political cultures thriving north and south of the Border. And the success of the Brexit Party doesn’t change that one iota.
Sure, Nigel Farage’s latest gang will probably win a seat here – maybe two, though hopefully not. That doesn’t mean the fault-lines of Scottish politics have changed in the way likely success in England does.
For one thing, we’ve already had a Ukip MEP for five years. Swap parties and candidates and plus ca change. For another thing, Nigel Farage has been a lot cleverer than his Unionist colleagues. As CommonSpace reported after his Edinburgh event, the politician who promised to abolish the Scottish Parliament now says “let’s get out of the EU and then have an honest debate about independence”. One of his candidates has promised the Brexit Party won’t block a second independence referendum “if the people of Scotland say that is what they want”. Pull the other one. But still, such an acknowledgement of the Yes movement’s enduring clout is more than any other Unionist party has made.
Ruth Davidson’s unending media-puffed ascendancy is over and Nigel’s ready to clean up. The day after the indyref, Yes voters switched to the SNP for Westminster elections, understanding other aspects of political difference must go on hold to prove the 45% had not disappeared. It took a long time for No voters to do the same thing and tens of thousands of non-classic Tory voters lined up behind Ruth Davidson. Now, though, the polls suggest they’ve deserted her party’s sinking ship for candidates they hardly know, in a party set up last month by a leader who disappears when the going gets rough.
Why? Because that’s what relentless negative campaigning does – it creates a bidding war and fresh competitors. In short, Ruth Davidson is being outsold and outbid. Today the main issue on voters’ minds is Brexit, not indy – someone really should have told Ruth. So while it’s true that Brexit supporters in Scotland are probably also Unionists, by leading off on the wrong foot, Ruth has lost partners in the Euro elections dance. Farage’s apparent cosying up to independence might attract a few Brexit supporting Yessers – but even voting expert John Curtice acknowledges the numbers in that camp have dwindled since the 2016 poll. It might also deter unhappy Unionists. But let’s face it. No-one seriously thinks Nigel believes an indy-friendly word he’s currently uttering. So votes will likely be cast on the biggest issue of the moment and for Leavers that’s immediate-looking Brexit, not distant-sounding indy.
Finally, Ruth looks set for a stormy relationship if Boris Johnson becomes the next Tory leader. That might help the Scottish Tories in the long run if it finally forces her to borrow Murdo Fraser’s big idea and set up a truly independent Scottish party. But if she doesn’t, Ruth will soon find out what it feels like to be the tartan tail trying to wag a hostile British bulldog.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says difference between her and Ruth Davidson is 'principles'
So, the Brexit Party will win seats in Scotland. But what does that actually mean for politics here?
It simply means that the tens of thousands who lined up behind Ruth Davidson have transferred their “status quo” allegiance to Farage’s insurgent party, on the grounds that renegades seem to get things done these days (or at least talk a better, angrier, more urgent game) more than mainstream, conventional, creaking old political parties. In some ways, the Euro elections have become the political equivalent of a supermarket war where loyalty-free consumers are switching from the big four to Aldi and Lidl.
But most Scottish voters recognise democracy is not a slogan competition between brands, and a fly-by-night bunch without a manifesto do not represent any serious, long-term alternative government to the SNP. Protest votes may be as good as democracy gets in stitched-up, manifesto-free English elections, but voters here expect more, and that’s why Scots won’t be swinging en masse to the Brexit Party as folk in England look set to do.
Of course, Scotland is no monolith and many people have deeply held objections to membership of the EU. The difference is that this sizeable minority hasn’t caused the issues of EU membership, freedom of movement and immigration to dominate political debate in Scotland as they have overwhelmed and gridlocked government and society in England.
The overwhelming support for the SNP in opinion polls is actually more than the Brexit Party’s UK share – and while that’s a Scotland-only result, it’s also proof that Nicola Sturgeon speaks for the majority of voters here in a way that’s almost without precedent for any government in office for 12 long years.
Since this Euro election is a proxy second Brexit referendum and a proxy General Election, other issues will doubtless be sucked into voting intentions.
But hollow promises lose. Hollow parties lose.
The Tories and Labour are about to discover this – to their cost and their shame.
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