Alex Salmond’s dream of a separate Scotland is rapidly falling apart

[Nye Bevan]

Alex Salmond has always taken a suspiciously high interest in the rights of the over-15s. “It is only right,” declared Scotland’s First Minister two years ago, “that young folk who can legally marry and join the Armed Forces should have their say.” Like everything he says and does, this was aimed at winning a referendum on Scottish independence. His rather vain premise was that tomorrow belongs to him, so young voters would obviously turn into his own teenage fanclub. But no one bothered to consult the young Scots.

A study just published by the University of Edinburgh is fairly devastating for the Scottish National Party. It polled a thousand teenagers who would be just old enough to vote in next year’s referendum, and found that 60 per cent want to keep the Union, with just 21 per cent backing independence. This fits a trend. School debates (which election strategists now have to keep an eye on) show independence being defeated time and time again. For the first time in two decades, the zeitgeist seems to be moving away from the nationalists.

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Mr Salmond’s first two enemies have been the Queen and Jessica Ennis. The Jubilee celebrations last year saw the Union flag being waved all over Scotland – used as a symbol of unity and celebration. The SNP introduced the term “Scolympians”, hoping that Scots would cheer only Scottish athletes in the Olympics, but this ended in humiliating failure. Andy Murray wrapped himself in the Union flag after taking gold at Wimbledon. Sir Chris Hoy dismissed as bizarre the idea that he was somehow a “Scolympian” cyclist, given his extensive use of English facilities. From Dundee to Dunstable, it felt pretty good to be British last summer. For young Scots, it still does.

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The SNP’s case appears to be falling apart. Some of its MPs are discovering their own Britishness, and saying the referendum is not about nationhood. Jim McColl, one of Salmond’s greatest business backers, says he’ll settle for “an independent Scottish Parliament within the United Kingdom”. A few weeks ago, he was exposed as a Monaco-based tax exile. As with actors such as Sean Connery and Alan Cumming, the SNP seems quite good at finding nationalists who will do anything for Scotland except live there. Some nationalists are now talking about creating their own currency, and whether to start this new nation by defaulting on the debt owed to England. It looks and sounds like a shambles.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/SNP/10103353/Alex-Salmonds-dream-of-a-separate-Scotland-is-rapidly-falling-apart.html