Now that the Scottish Tories have more than doubled their seats in the Scottish Parliament, politics north of the border show signs of becoming less messianic and more normal
The most important immediate effect is on next month’s nationwide EU referendum. One of the fears had been that a UK Leave majority carried by English votes would so anger the Scots (polls show the Scots are slightly more pro-EU than the rest of the UK) that they would demand a second independence referendum of their own.
Since Leave supporters believe in the United Kingdom, it seemed too risky to some to vote to give the Scots this incentive for break-up.
Now that risk has evaporated. We know that this break-up (which, by the way, I do not believe Scotland wants) is not on the cards. Even the SNP, slightly chastened by their loss of an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, are briefing that they won’t be seeking a second Scottish referendum.
Scotland has voted No to a second referendum
Charles Moore
8 May 2016
The Telegraph
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the resurgent Scottish Conservative Party, has been dubbed "the next Margaret Thatcher" and has been tipped to be a future UK Prime Minister
This column comes to you from the Boswell Literary Festival, in Ayrshire, named in honour of Dr Johnson’s immortal biographer.
That book is, among many other things, the record of the productive association between a proud Scot (Boswell) and a bloody-minded Englishman (Johnson). They were Better Together. It is a good place to be as the results of the Scottish election are digested.
The most important immediate effect is on next month’s nationwide EU referendum. One of the fears had been that a UK Leave majority carried by English votes would so anger the Scots that they would demand a second independence referendum of their own.
Since Leave supporters believe in the United Kingdom, it seemed too risky to some to vote to give the Scots this incentive for break-up.
Now that risk has evaporated. We know that this break-up (which, by the way, I do not believe Scotland wants) is not on the cards. Even the SNP, slightly chastened by their loss of an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, are briefing that they won’t be seeking a second Scottish referendum.
More reassuring is the fact that, even if they did, they would be most unlikely to get one. The decision is for the UK Parliament, not the Scottish one, and Westminster will feel under little moral pressure to call one as the tide of nationalism recedes. Now that the Scottish Tories have more than doubled their seats, politics north of the border show signs of becoming less messianic and more normal. Scottish voters have recalled, for example, that tax matters.
On Thursday they punished the only one of the three main parties – Labour – which promised to increase income tax.
At the festival, which takes place in Dumfries House, so wonderfully restored by the Prince of Wales and thrown open for the pleasure and employment of the rather depressed former mining area, I was speaking about Mrs Thatcher.
Dumfries House in Ayrshire
Her story contains a lesson about Scotland and tax, though not quite the one that people think. The great folk-legend is that she made Scotland a “guinea-pig” for the poll tax, as if she specially intended to torture its population.
What actually happened is that she was running scared because of rates – the tax which preceded the poll tax. In Scotland, there had, by law, to be a rate revaluation, and the consequence was that rates shot up, in some cases, by more than 300 per cent. Mrs Thatcher’s Scottish ministers were in such a blind panic about what would happen in the coming general election of 1987 that they begged her to bring in change fast. So the poll tax was promised to the Scots earlier than to the rest of the country because they were thought to be gagging for it.
This promise helped shore up the sagging Scottish Tory vote in 1987. It was only when Scotland started to pay the poll tax nearly two years later that all hell broke loose. The rest is history, or rather, herstory.
And the lesson – how could anyone have ever forgotten it? – is that Scotland, egalitarian though it likes to think of itself, is even more averse to high taxes than other parts of the United Kingdom.
Scotland has voted No to a second referendum*
The most important immediate effect is on next month’s nationwide EU referendum. One of the fears had been that a UK Leave majority carried by English votes would so anger the Scots (polls show the Scots are slightly more pro-EU than the rest of the UK) that they would demand a second independence referendum of their own.
Since Leave supporters believe in the United Kingdom, it seemed too risky to some to vote to give the Scots this incentive for break-up.
Now that risk has evaporated. We know that this break-up (which, by the way, I do not believe Scotland wants) is not on the cards. Even the SNP, slightly chastened by their loss of an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, are briefing that they won’t be seeking a second Scottish referendum.
Scotland has voted No to a second referendum
Charles Moore
8 May 2016
The Telegraph
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the resurgent Scottish Conservative Party, has been dubbed "the next Margaret Thatcher" and has been tipped to be a future UK Prime Minister
This column comes to you from the Boswell Literary Festival, in Ayrshire, named in honour of Dr Johnson’s immortal biographer.
That book is, among many other things, the record of the productive association between a proud Scot (Boswell) and a bloody-minded Englishman (Johnson). They were Better Together. It is a good place to be as the results of the Scottish election are digested.
The most important immediate effect is on next month’s nationwide EU referendum. One of the fears had been that a UK Leave majority carried by English votes would so anger the Scots that they would demand a second independence referendum of their own.
Since Leave supporters believe in the United Kingdom, it seemed too risky to some to vote to give the Scots this incentive for break-up.
Now that risk has evaporated. We know that this break-up (which, by the way, I do not believe Scotland wants) is not on the cards. Even the SNP, slightly chastened by their loss of an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament, are briefing that they won’t be seeking a second Scottish referendum.
More reassuring is the fact that, even if they did, they would be most unlikely to get one. The decision is for the UK Parliament, not the Scottish one, and Westminster will feel under little moral pressure to call one as the tide of nationalism recedes. Now that the Scottish Tories have more than doubled their seats, politics north of the border show signs of becoming less messianic and more normal. Scottish voters have recalled, for example, that tax matters.
On Thursday they punished the only one of the three main parties – Labour – which promised to increase income tax.
At the festival, which takes place in Dumfries House, so wonderfully restored by the Prince of Wales and thrown open for the pleasure and employment of the rather depressed former mining area, I was speaking about Mrs Thatcher.
Dumfries House in Ayrshire
Her story contains a lesson about Scotland and tax, though not quite the one that people think. The great folk-legend is that she made Scotland a “guinea-pig” for the poll tax, as if she specially intended to torture its population.
What actually happened is that she was running scared because of rates – the tax which preceded the poll tax. In Scotland, there had, by law, to be a rate revaluation, and the consequence was that rates shot up, in some cases, by more than 300 per cent. Mrs Thatcher’s Scottish ministers were in such a blind panic about what would happen in the coming general election of 1987 that they begged her to bring in change fast. So the poll tax was promised to the Scots earlier than to the rest of the country because they were thought to be gagging for it.
This promise helped shore up the sagging Scottish Tory vote in 1987. It was only when Scotland started to pay the poll tax nearly two years later that all hell broke loose. The rest is history, or rather, herstory.
And the lesson – how could anyone have ever forgotten it? – is that Scotland, egalitarian though it likes to think of itself, is even more averse to high taxes than other parts of the United Kingdom.
Scotland has voted No to a second referendum*
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