Only independence can rescue Scotland from the far right

The National

07-05-2025

He refused to be drawn on what "really well" means exactly in terms of seats. However, we have already seen that the Westminster parties ignored the clear mandate for a second independence referendum given to the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish electorate in 2021 following a campaign which was dominated by the issue of another independence referendum.
The SNP barely scraped a majority in that election but the current Scottish Parliament has its largest ever pro-independence majority. This pro-independence Holyrood majority was Brit-splained away by the Westminster parties and their allies in the media, who insisted variously that the election hadn't really been about a second independence majority after all, that the SNP did not win an absolute majority by itself, or that the SNP's share of the vote was far less than 50%.
The existence of pro-independence Scottish Green MSPs and the votes which got them elected were ignored and discounted as were votes won by Alba, then contesting its first election. The total votes cast for the three pro-independence parties was slightly more than 50% but this was brushed aside.
This incidentally is why attempts to game the electoral system in order to inflate the number of pro-independence MSPs without increasing the votes of the pro-independence parties are doomed to failure if the goal is wresting another referendum out of Westminster.
Although we are four years away from a Westminster General Election and a week – never mind four years – is famously a long time in politics, this poll is a chilling reminder that only independence can rescue Scotland from the storm clouds of far-right English nationalist supremacism which are gathering south of the border.
The recent elections in Canada and Australia ought to teach the Labour Party that the far right can be successfully headed off, but only if it is challenged and stood up to. Keir Starmer's attempts to pander to the talking points and politics of Farage are counterproductive, serving only to empower Reform UK and entrench them even more.
The bottom line is that no British prime minister will ever agree to another Scottish independence referendum as long as there is the slightest possibility of a Yes victory. Excuses will be found, goalposts will be shifted, no matter the outcome of a Scottish Parliament election.
That said, John Swinney was correct when he said that another independence referendum is possible if the SNP does "really well", however that is defined in practice. If the SNP do not do well in the next Holyrood election, and God forbid we end up with an anti-independence majority, then Keir Starmer will triumphantly announce that Scotland has rejected 'nationalism' and we will have nothing to defend Scotland from Starmer's brand of centre-right British-nationalism or the even more vile far-right English nationalism of Nigel Farage that is waiting in the wings.
A pro-independence majority in Holyrood in 2026 will not get Starmer to agree to another independence referendum, but we need a pro-independence majority in Holyrood in order to give greater political legitimacy to a majority of SNP MPs returned in the next Westminster General Election due in 2029, when on current form we are likely to see Nigel Farage as the next prime minister.
Those MPs need to precipitate a constitutional crisis and jam up the operation of Westminster, giving legitimacy to a Scottish Parliament which must be prepared to engage in institutional disobedience and defy Farage.
Westminster poll puts Reform at top
A new poll has found that Reform would sweep to power in Westminster if a General Election was held tomorrow. The poll, carried out by More in Common, puts Reform on 27%, well ahead of Labour on 23% and the Tories on 21%. Translated into Commons seats, this would put Reform on 364, well above the 326 needed for a majority.
Due to the distorting nature of the first past the post system, Labour would collapse to just 86 seats, the Lib Dems would become the official opposition with 87 seats, while the Tories would be almost annihilated, being left with just 17 seats. The SNP would recover most of the seats lost in 2024 and would have 44 seats, making them by far the largest Scottish party. The Greens and Plaid Cymru are also predicted to gain seats, with the Greens going from four to seven and Plaid Cymru up from four MPs to six.
Starmer continues to double down on Labour's attempts to appease the far right, responding to the recent English local elections by announcing a crackdown on student visas, refusing to reconsider the cuts to disability benefits or Winter Fuel Payments, and throwing the trans community under the bus. It's a strategy which is doomed to failure, succeeding only in alienating Labour's traditional supporters while allowing Reform to claim that their politics are mainstream.
The media think VE Day is all about the royals
It's the 80th anniversary of VE Day, marking the end of a global conflict which resulted in the deaths of as many as 85 million people, redrew the map of Europe, displaced tens of millions of people, and saw the genocide of millions of Jews, Poles, Roma, and others.
Yet according to the British media, it was really mostly about the British royal family, at least according to the amount of airtime given to royal posturing and sycophancy. It wasn't too long before WW2 broke out that members of the British royal family were happily giving Nazi salutes – now rebranded as Elon Musk throwing out his heart.
This anniversary could have been a solemn refection on the dangers of militarism and the far right, especially apposite at a time when the far right is in the ascendant and governments are spending more on armaments with wars brewing around the globe and an actual genocide taking place in Gaza.
Instead, we are treated to militaristic parades and gushing accounts of the privileged and tone-deaf super-rich Windsor family.