How to avoid an SNP majority and the endless drive for second Scottish independence referendum it will bring
The Highlands and Islands are at real risk from an SNP majority, but are also well-placed to prevent it
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I suspect that there are very few of us who would look at the last five years of SNP rule and call it a resounding success. And yet – if we are to believe the polls – we could be on the verge of an outright SNP majority (albeit on a historically low vote share) come May.
If that comes to pass, then it bodes poorly for our politics on a national level. John Swinney has already said that he will use this as a mandate to spend his time and political capital pushing for another independence referendum, rather than doing the day job of government.
It also bodes poorly for marginalised areas of Scotland which already suffer from nationalist neglect. The Highlands and Islands have the most to lose from another SNP majority government – but they are also the best placed to prevent it from coming to pass. That is why what happens in constituencies from Argyll to Shetland really matters.
On issues both big and small, political and personal, the last five years have shown the SNP in a pretty poor light.
SNP’s dismal track record
Record NHS waiting lists. Half a billion pounds spent on two ferries which still aren’t working on the west coast. Nicola Sturgeon deleting her Covid WhatsApp messages. The threat of highly protected marine areas to fishing communities.
Chaos under Humza Yousaf. A minister’s £11,000 bill for watching football on an iPad in Morocco. Sky-high drugs deaths. The list goes on – and all that in a period when the SNP at least had to be accountable to other parties to pass legislation.
Imagine what the next five years could look like. More time spent litigating ‘IndyRef2’, less need for the SNP to negotiate with other parties – and even less resistance to their programme of centralisation. It should be a concerning prospect for communities across Scotland – but doubly so for those outwith the Central Belt.
Whether it’s getting a working ferry service for Scottish island communities, repairing the health system or getting to grips with drug deaths, the last thing our politics needs is more constitutional distractions – and yet all these issues will be pushed to the back of the queue again if the SNP secure a majority.
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‘Wheesht for Indy’
We have seen this pattern before. It was former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill who let slip some years ago that the SNP had gone silent on Scotland’s drug deaths during the 2014 referendum. How many more key issues are to be given the “wheesht for Indy” treatment in the years to come?
Or look at the ‘omni-scandal’ that is the SNP’s ferry fiasco. The roots of that mess date back to 2014, when Alex Salmond brokered a rescue of Ferguson Marine in order to avoid an embarrassing industrial collapse weeks before the independence referendum. That set the precedent for SNP mismanagement for political ends which continues to this day – while island communities pay the price.
That is why the prospect of a majority SNP government really matters – and should give people in key constituencies like Shetland, Argyll & Bute, and Ross, Skye & Lochaber pause for thought. For the sake of better government, it is in all our interests to deny the SNP a majority that they do not deserve.
Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland
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