WEEK one of the new Westminster parliament has just ended, with less pomp and ceremony than usual. Having already held one State Opening of Parliament in recent months, protocol was reduced for the Queen’s Speech, but still there was the ridiculous scene of MPs having to parade to an unelected chamber, and try and squeeze in to hear the future plans for the Government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson looked mightily pleased with himself as he marched two-by-two next to an unhappy Jeremy Corbyn.
As MPs reconvened to debate the Queen’s Speech, BoJo let his usual immodesty take over as he promised a golden age of Brexit Britain, while Corbyn’s reply was as lost as his party in the General Election. Westminster SNP leader Ian Blackford was forthright in his speech from the traditional third party spot, just diagonally across from the Prime Minister. He continued the traditional Tory gracelessness when Scotland’s election winners speak – this time he was busy on his mobile phone. Usually Tory MPs just walk out during the contributions from Scotland in this Parliament of the “family of nations”.
READ MORE: SNP email shows media how to hold Tories to account over independence
The early signs from Westminster are as disappointing as they are to be expected: disrespecting the views of the electorate in Scotland, disregarding the results from Northern Ireland and not even bothering with democracy when it comes to Government appointments.
In case you missed it, Johnson has re-appointed Nicky Morgan as Culture Secretary even though she was voted for by precisely no-one in the General Election. Morgan, who stood down from the Commons, will now not even have to face questions in the chamber from people who were actually elected. He’s also ennobled election loser Zac Goldsmith, who will serve in the House of Lords as an environment minister, even though he lost his seat in London. This is exactly what the Tories did after the previous election when Pete Wishart of the SNP defeated Ian Duncan in Perth by 21 votes. Without a democratic mandate he took up a parliamentary seat in the House of Lords as Baron Duncan of Springbank.
Overlooking the results of democratic elections is becoming a full-time pursuit for the Tories. Having lost the election in Scotland, the Conservatives are tying themselves in knots of Orwellian double-speak to deny the outcome the people voted for. Tory commentators have been despatched to defend the indefensible when they all know an independence referendum is coming.
The Tories are a party that delivered a UK referendum on Brexit with only 36% support in the 2015 General Election, when a majority of votes were cast for non-Brexit parties. That hasn’t stopped them claiming that a party that won 45% of the vote didn’t win a mandate for an independence referendum in Scotland because 55% voted for Unionist parties. Really?! Go back and check your notes.
This is not complicated. There was an election. The party that advocated a Scottish referendum won and those that opposed it lost. By standing in the way of a referendum the UK parties are actually making the independence case and the likelihood of a referendum and Yes vote more likely. By demonstrating that the UK Government does not care what people in Scotland vote for, it underlines that the UK is not fit for purpose. Keep it up Tories, you are helpfully demonstrating why Scotland shouldn’t be governed by Tory election losers.
Meanwhile, it is to be welcomed that Northern Ireland’s Remain majority is now being spoken up for at Westminster. The impressive leader of the SDLP Colum Eastwood has already been on his feet in the House of Commons pointing out that both Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain in the European Union. For the first time ever a majority of MPs from Northern Ireland are not Unionist, so we can expect to hear something different.
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Yesterday more than 80% of Scotland’s MPs opposed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan for the UK to leave the EU on January 31. He will ignore that. Because he now has a parliamentary majority from elsewhere in the UK, he thinks he can impose his extreme Brexit vision on Scotland. The consequences of that will, ironically, end the UK.
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