Scotland's independence: like I said... (2)

"Labour is paying a heavy price for leading the recent campaign against independence, and persuading the Scottish people they’d be better off voting ‘No’. Its core voters in cities such as Glasgow and Dundee felt betrayed by the party standing on a platform with the hated Tories.

"Having done so, Labour is now held accountable for delivering the cross-party promises of further devolution made in that frantic fortnight before the vote. Every day those promises remain undelivered, the clamour grows that Miliband’s party has deceived Scotland into rejecting independence.

"Accusations of treachery and trickery have a special potency in Scottish history, from the betrayal of William Wallace to the massacre at Glencoe. Now, however unfairly, Scottish Labour finds itself cast as the perfidious enemy within, and its poll ratings have plummeted. On the latest projections, at least three-quarters of Labour MPs in Scotland would lose their Westminster seats to the SNP if the Election were held tomorrow – the equivalent of the Conservatives losing every one of their MPs in Essex and Kent.

 

"That would eliminate any chance of a Labour majority, and – one way or another – it would guarantee a second referendum on Scottish independence, which next time the SNP would comfortably win. Goodbye Union. Good luck, Scotland. And goodnight Labour."

 

- Damian McBride in today's Mail on Sunday

"I think it's coming anyway. The panic last-minute promises from HMG are a gift to the Yes camp, who can say, "Would they have offered these concessions if they didn't think we'd leave; will they keep their promises if we don't?"

"Then later, if the promises aren't kept, it'll be let's vote again, now we know; and if the promises are kept, then it'll be like one of those I-need-some-space "trial separations" that end in divorce proper.

"Salmond's done it, with the assistance of an incompetent and negligent Westminster."

- Sackerson, "Salmond has done it!" (9 September)

(Source: The Independent, 30 October 2014)

(Hat-tip for the heads-up to John Ward.)


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