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THE two Tory MSPs on Holyrood’s Constitution committee have made no secret of their disdain for the probe into legal mechanisms for an independence referendum.
On Thursday morning, MSPs quizzed Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson as part of the investigation, which previously saw legal experts weigh in on the route to indyref2.
Ahead of the inquiry even beginning, Tory MSP Stephen Kerr threw a strop when the party’s attempts for the probe to look into freedom of speech instead were rejected.
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He claimed that the referendum inquiry was “nakedly political” and made an “utter mockery” of the Scottish Parliament.
And on Thursday, Kerr and his colleague Jamie Halcro Johnson made it clear that they viewed the entire exercise as beneath them.
In an exchange with Robertson, Kerr opined: “I think the whole inquiry, frankly, has been a fatuous waste of time, because what we've heard in evidence time and time again is what we already knew – that the Supreme Court judgment makes it clear that these powers rest with the sovereign Parliament of the United Kingdom.”
Halcro Johnson, who clashed with the Constitution Secretary over John Swinney’s “secret plan” for independence and was evidently on the wind up, also let slip his contempt for the fact that he, an elected MSP, on a committee that is set up to discuss constitutional matters, had to engage on the substance of the question at hand, instead trying to stray into electioneering.
“Can I say, Mr Robertson, this is an inquiry into a legal mechanism, we're taking evidence,” he said.
“It's actually the whole point of these sorts of inquiries, and I mean some might question whether there's a point to this inquiry, but the whole point of this inquiry is that we take evidence from experts and yourself. I'm not suggesting you're not an expert or you don't have an insight on to…that wasn't my intention, but the point is, we're trying to take that information.”
But Robertson (above), who was evidently frustrated by Halcro Johnson’s line of questioning, nailed down the point the Tory MSPs were so evidently seeking to avoid.
“What I'm very clear about is that a party in its manifesto saying that it is committed to and its MSPs will vote for a referendum taking place, is a mandate for that choice,” he explained.
“Now we don't need to go around the houses again on this, but it would appear that the salient point here is being lost by some, that there is a difference between the right of self determination and an agreed route as democrats to be able to do that with the pros and cons of independence itself, and still, nobody on the No side of the constitutional argument has been prepared to address this.”
UK Government ministers have repeatedly and vehemently refused to set out the democratic route to a Scottish independence referendum. The phrase “settled will” is thrown about as if it is the be-all and end-all of the argument, when it simply isn’t.
This is an issue that has dogged the Scottish political sphere for over a decade, and the only answer that is willingly given is either "no" or "now is not the time".
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Holyrood’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture committee is well within its remit to undertake a probe into any potential legal mechanisms, and it does Unionists no good trying to pretend that the issue doesn’t exist.
The SNP were given a mandate in 2021 by voters to do exactly that when they formed the Scottish Government, and while some politicians may like to act as if the constitutional debate is fading into the ether, polling states otherwise.
Discussions around independence and the constitution aren’t going away.
Those tantrum-throwing MSPs on the Tory benches, however, will be lucky to cling onto their seats at the next election.
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