MORE Scots trust the SNP and its leader-elect Nicola Sturgeon to deliver extra powers to Scotland than any other party or politician, despite the Yes campaign losing the independence referendum, a survey has found.
That the British parties are generally distrusted - if not actually despised - in Scotland is hardly a revelation. How could it be otherwise after the way they behaved during the referendum campaign and that way they have consistently failed Scotland over far too many years.
Neither is it at all surprising that the SNP should be the most trusted party. They have a proven record in government and, at the very least, have been evidently striving to make good on their promises. Being closely associated with the glorious Yes campaign has also done the party no harm at all.
It may seem overly cynical, therefore, to see some ulterior motive behind the claim that Nicola Sturgeon is trusted to deliver more powers. The reality, of course, is that Sturgeon has no authority to “deliver more powers” for the Scottish Parliament. Those who voted No in September’s referendum decided that they didn’t want the people of Scotland or their elected representatives to decide what powers their parliament should have. 55% of those who voted in that referendum chose to throw away the massive political power that had been won for them by the SNP. They decided that they didn’t want to be sovereign in their own nation.
Worse! They decided that the other 45% were also to be denied their sovereignty.
Those No voters made what most of them would doubtless claim to be an informed and thoughtful choice to forfeit the right of the people of Scotland to decide what powers their parliament should have and hand that decision instead to a small clique of British politicians in London who have no electoral mandate in Scotland.
When the British establishment, as represented by this newspaper, promotes Nicola Sturgeon as the person who will bring more powers to the Scottish Parliament they do so in the full knowledge that she is bound to fail. She is undoubtedly the best person to speak for Scotland in the coming months and years. But when the British parties renege on their panicky pre-referendum promises and the UK Government declines to implement meaningful further devolution, it will not be Nicola Sturgeon who has failed to deliver. It will be the British politicians that No voters opted to trust with this task despite the fact that those British politicians are known to be unworthy of that trust.
See on heraldscotland.com
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