IS THIS THE END OF THE UNION AS WE KNOW IT?


T


HE EXTRAORDINARY electoral destruction of Scotish Labour in the UK election, leaving the formerly dominant people’s party with one solitary seat north of the border, was bound to trigger even more searching questions about the immediate constitutional future


of Scotland. The Scotish Conservatives has been hors de combat since the 1990s. Now,the only remaining party political champion of unionism in the country has also been routed. It does indeed seem that the Union might soon be overwhelmed by this nationalist tsunami.


I am a historian; the future is most certainly not my period. But a few thoughts, based on some reasoned speculation, might be of interest on what might happen now to the so far unanswered Scotish Question.


At first glance, the omens seemed favourable for those who aspired to the establishment of a sovereign Scotish state in the near future. The SNP has turned Scotland into a one-party nationalist polity. The two Scotish parties which staunchly support the Union have only a seat


The Conversation www.theconversation.com


Te nationalists now have the political contest for which they have long yearned, nay lusted: a straight toe-to-toe fight with a Westminster Tory government which has promised to bring in yet more austerity and draconian cuts in welfare over the next few years.


As Michael Kenny recently argued:


As an unintended consequence of devolution … An increasingly Anglicised polity has quietly emerged as an incubus at the heart of the UK state … the Westminster parliament is gradually evolving into an English-focused one.


This tendency can only increase when EVEL (English Votes for English Laws – the plan to prevent Scotish


June 2015 55


by Tom Devine, Sir William Fraser Professor of Scotish History Emeritus at University of Edinburgh


each in Westminster and have been overtaken by the serried ranks of 56 new nationalist MPs.


SNP morale has been boosted to astronomical levels. The Yes movement was not killed off by the referendum defeat but has continued unabated since then. Scotish opinion has hardened around the SNP under the new leadership of Nicola Sturgeon since the referendum, hence it is very likely that the party will be returned to power at the next Holyrood election in 2016.


The nationalists now have the political contest for which they have long yearned, nay lusted: a straight toe-to-toe fight with a Westminster Tory government which has promised to bring in yet more austerity and draconian cuts in welfare over the next few years.


The Conservative campaign before the general election against the supposed threat from the Scots supporting a Labour minority government could hardly have helped the unionist cause. Westminster itself also now seems less a parliament of the entire union than it did a few years ago.


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