Why Andy Burnham is turning out to be bigger gift to SNP than bungling Boris Johnson – Murdo Fraser
The Prime Minister’s careless remark about an independence referendum gave the SNP a boost just when they were in real trouble, even coming under attack from The Proclaimers
The kindest interpretation that can be put upon Andy Burnham's most recent comments on another independence referendum is that he hadn't given any proper thought to his answer. In the last week, in response to a question from SNP MP Chris Law, the Prime Minister stated that if public opinion in Scotland showed an appetite for another referendum, then he was open to it.
In just a few words, he tore up what had been a long-standing policy not just of the current Labour government but the previous Conservative one, that there was no demand for another referendum after the overwhelming vote in 2014 for Scotland to remain in the UK, and to grant one would simply be a distraction from the real issues facing the country. It was a gift to the SNP, and John Swinney immediately jumped on the statement, writing to Burnham to demand urgent talks on the route to another referendum.
Downing Street then had to spend the next few days desperately trying to repair the damage, claiming that the UK government’s policy on a referendum hadn’t changed, but it was by then too late. Burnham’s inexperience in leadership had been brutally exposed by just a few careless words, and he had given succour to those whose ambition is to break up the UK.
Scottish education going backwards
It could not have come at a better time for the SNP, in a week of terrible headlines for them. We had the international Pisa assessment of education, with the damning evidence that Scotland is lagging well behind comparator countries. Perhaps most worrying of all, in science and maths, both disciplines essential for the modern technological world, we have fallen far behind England, a truly depressing statistic for the country of James Clerk Maxwell, Alexander Fleming and James Hutton, to name just a few.
The hapless new Education Secretary, Màiri McAllan, tried to put the best spin she could on the results, claiming they did not take into account either “creative expression” or “moral education”. I’m sure that will come as a great consolation to young Scots when they finds themselves in competition for a career in financial services with better-qualified products of the English school system.
In fairness, this is not just McAllan’s fault. We have had numerous former Education Secretaries, all promising reforms to the system, including both the current First Minister and his deputy. Yet Scottish education has gone backwards under the SNP, and perhaps most worrying, they refuse to learn the lessons of the progress made in England.
The previous English Education Secretary Michael Gove, a Scot, graciously offered to assist the Scottish government, but McAllan immediately ruled that out. Party politics were once again being put ahead of what was in Scotland’s best interests.
Hard lesson for ‘lazy’ Flynn
It wasn’t just McAllan as a minister who had a torrid week. Stephen Flynn, the new Economy and Transport Secretary, was woefully exposed while being questioned by an MSPs’ committee about the latest revelations on Scotland’s troubled ferry fleet.
It emerged that he was unaware of the latest scandal around the MV Glen Sannox ferry, after it was reported that a major valve failure had led to an uncontrolled leak of several hundred kilogrammes of flammable methane gas during a sailing.
Flynn clearly hadn’t read his briefing prior to his committee appearance, backing up media reports that civil servants have damned him as lazy and not in command of his brief.
He is quickly finding out there is a world of difference between being the leader of an opposition party at Westminster, which essentially requires someone to stand up once a week and ask a preprepared question to get a clip on TV and social media, and having to run a whole department, be fully informed about all relevant issues, and take tough and timely decisions.
Proclaimers’ vicious attack on SNP
If all that were not bad enough for the SNP, we then had Charlie and Craig Reid of The Proclaimers slamming them as being “lazy thinkers” who were not making a priority of independence. In a radio interview, they highlighted what they described as the SNP’s “self-inflicted” woes in recent times. Craig Reid also revealed he had not supported the SNP in May’s election, amid anger at the policy of gender self-ID. Having been one-time poster boys of the independence movement, launching such a vicious attack just piled on the SNP’s problems.
None of that stopped Swinney this week travelling to Cardiff to meet leaders of Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein to discuss how the three parties could work together to promote the break-up of the UK. With all three devolved administrations led by pro-independence First Ministers, the SNP see the optics of the gathering as positive for their cause.
READ MORE: Thank you, The Proclaimers, for Sunshine On Leith – and for standing up for the right to 'offend'
Burnham’s ill-judged comments last week will simply have put a spring in their step. In what should have been a terrible week for the SNP judged by their domestic record, it has turned into one where they tried to regain some momentum, thanks to some careless talk.
Even Boris Johnson, who I readily admit had his failings as Prime Minister, never handed the SNP the gift-wrapped parcel that has just been delivered by Burnham. With the Conservatives, there is no uncertainty, doubt or speculation about where we stand on another independence referendum. The difference between us and Labour is that we are fully committed to Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom, and we are not in the business of making life any easier for John Swinney and the SNP.
Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife
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