RUTH Davidson's sockpuppet leaderette of the Scottish Tory branch office isn't at all happy. Admittedly this is difficult to tell since having a face that could fry a British pound of mince from the distance between Westminster and Holyrood is pretty much the base state of the Scottish Conservatives. Coincidentally, it's also the UK Government's policy towards devolution, but that's not what Douglas is so unhappy about.
READ MORE: Is this Daily Mail article more proof Douglas Ross is a front for Ruth Davidson?
What's causing this particular episode of long distance mince frying is that Douglas decided to use his speech to the online Conservative Conference to blame his own party for the rise in support for independence. Not because they're undermining the devolution settlement. Not because they're hell bent on pursuing a hard Brexit that Scotland has roundly rejected. Not because they're treating the Scottish Parliament with contempt. Oh no. It's because his colleagues in England aren't really interested in saving the Union and have already given up on listening to Scotland. Although that is to assume that they ever did to begin with. Still, it's a start. It's a start in the same sense that admitting that injecting bleach into your veins may not after all be the best way to deal with coronavirus, although it's not going to stop you from injecting bleach into your veins. That's because the bleach comes from a supermarket which has decided to plaster Union flags on all its products.
Douglas's speech is of course a roundabout way of saying that the Conservative party hasn't got the slightest interest in taking Scotland's concerns into account, which is what independence supporters have been saying for years. Nice to see that Douglas is aware of it, although he's not sufficiently aware of it for it to make the slightest bit of difference to how he votes in the Commons. He still voted for the Internal Market Bill that will trash the devolution settlement and the Sewell Convention even though it has no support in Scotland outside his own minority party. He's still quite happy to support the British Government when it threatens to break international law. Baby steps there Dougie, baby steps.
What this speech really represents however is the recognition from the Scottish Conservatives that their colleagues in England have no real interest in doing what it takes to save the UK. As Douglas himself has admitted, what he's hearing from his own side is "defeatism and disinterest". Mind you, it's a bit rich for the Scottish branch office manager of a party which trades in the very worst form of xenophobic and romantic nostalgic British nationalism to assert that this attitude only "serves nationalism".
READ MORE: Douglas Ross inadvertently tweets great argument for independence
The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has now confessed in public that his own party trades in narrow nationalism, that it is driven by the pursuit of English nationalist goals and is unwilling or unable to distinguish between what English nationalism wants and what is good for the UK as a whole. That's why he felt the need to remind his own party that "The United Kingdom forms a much greater whole than just England alone." When supporters of Scottish independence claim that the Conservatives are driven by English nationalism, the Scottish Tories will no longer be able to refute it. Their own leader has admittedd as much.
What we are seeing from the Scottish Conservative leader now is an admission that there is a significant body of Conservative opinion in England which believes that their power will only be further entrenched if they rid themselves of the troublesome Scots. They have swallowed wholesale the myth that Scotland is an economic basket case which is dependent on a transfer of funds from English taxpayers. They know that without Scotland and all those annoying SNP MPs, they'd enjoy an even stronger majority in the Commons than they already do. They believe that they could force an independent Scotland to accept an rUK submarine base, so from their perspective the loss of Scotland would only bring positives. They're certainly not about to risk their pursuit of absolute power in the UK in order to keep some Scots in line when they believe that losing Scotland would not be a calamity.
For those of us who already support independence, and for those who are undecided, what this speech represents is a Conservative party which has already abandoned any pretence that this is really a union. Scotland is a part of a unitary state which is driven by the right wing English nationalists who dominate the Conservative party. That's a party which sees no real reason to change its ways, hence the pleading from Douglas Ross. There is no future for Scotland in the UK that the majority of the Conservative party has in mind.
More importantly it tells us that opposition to Scottish independence in the Conservative party has already been hollowed out from within. Of course in public they will maintain their spurious arguments about "once in a generation" in a desperate attempt to fend off Scotland's democratic choices. But amongst themselves they already know that the game is up. Douglas Ross's speech was not the speech of a leader who is confident and assured. It was the speech of a man who can see that the writing is on the wall for the so-called precious union.
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