Does the Conservative and Unionist party secretly want to break up the UK?
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Version 0 of 1. It comes to something when even Michael Forsyth, Tory former secretary of state for Scotland and one of Mrs Thatcher’s most favoured offsprings, is worried that David Cameron is making a grave political and constitutional error by “weaponising” the SNP to attack Labour (PM’s Sturgeon tactics put UK at risk, says Tory peer, 21 April). As a non-Scots Labour supporter who has recently moved to Scotland from Yorkshire, I, like Lord Forsyth, have been trying to work out what the Conservative and sometime Unionist party is up to. My conclusion, however, differs from his: the Tories, who currently only have one Scottish Westminster MP and are likely to lose even that, actually want to break up the UK in favour of the interests of their City and corporate donors. How else would you explain the following? First, the Tories permit the SNP to set the terms and timing of the Scottish referendum, even to the extent of allowing independence to be the yes option on the ballot paper. Then, on discovering that the Scots had, despite Cameron’s best efforts, somehow rejected separation, the PM stands on the steps of Downing Street to reassure English nationalists that only English votes would pass English laws. Realising that even this might not be enough, at least in the short term, the Tories decide to tell Scottish voters that their votes are not as important as, say, Ukip voters in South Thanet or Clacton. Finally, they think that the best person to tell the Scots to mind their own nationalist business is smiling, avuncular, cricket-loving John Major, another of Mrs Thatcher’s favourites. Job done. If Cameron is looking for his legacy, perhaps he has stumbled upon it, because if he carries on like this he may well be remembered as a true one-nation Tory. Only the nation in question will not be the UK but England.Derek MckiernanEdinburgh • As your editorial (21 April) makes clear, this general election is not just about who gets to form the next government but, more importantly, whether the union between Scotland and England, and the UK’s membership of the European Union, will survive. Giving the Thornely Society annual lecture on Monday 20 April, I argued that the composition of the next parliament will be crucial to whether these unions endure in their current form. A minority Conservative government (or one with a very small majority) may wish to proceed to an EU referendum. But it will require legislative approval from the Commons, which it may struggle to secure, not least in the face of opposition not just from Labour but from a swath of new SNP MPs. Should an EU referendum be held in which a majority in England vote to leave the EU, it seems clear that this will trigger calls for a second Scottish independence referendum. However, again, this can only happen if Westminster gives Holyrood the competence to legislate for another referendum. Knowing what we all know now, and especially if SNP MPs seek to block an EU referendum, there may be less of an appetite in Westminster to confer that competence. Sturgeon has cannily forced Mr Cameron to try to frighten English floating voters to eschew Labour at the election Were the Scottish parliament to act unconstitutionally and legislate for an independence referendum, and were the electorate in Scotland to vote for independence, not only would this see the demise of Scotland’s union with the rest of the UK, the unconstitutionality of the referendum would create a serious obstacle to an independent Scotland’s future membership of the EU. Electing a party that takes an EU referendum off the table may turn out to be vital not just to the UK’s enduring EU membership but to maintaining our own union, at least for the lifetime of the next parliament.Kenneth ArmstrongProfessor of European law, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge • The chances that the UK would break up are surely far greater with a Conservative-led government. Such a government would be likely to pay scant regard to, or show respect for, the democratic choices made by the Scottish electorate, and this would stoke the fires of separatism. The arguments of David Cameron, Sir John Major and others that a Labour-led government would lead to mayhem and threaten the future of the UK because it would be supported by the SNP can be turned precisely the other way. Without a broad-based progressive alliance, hopefully including the Lib Dems, a future of division and fragmentation seems likely.Professor Ron GlatterHemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire • The real threat to the union is the return of the Tories to Westminster. This would ensure sufficient additional support in anti-Tory Scotland for a successful yes campaign in a future referendum. Nicola Sturgeon’s canny campaign can be seen in this light. She has forced Mr Cameron to try to frighten English floating voters to eschew Labour at the election and thus ensure a Tory victory. Pretty smart. Lord Forsyth probably understands this but is unwilling, for obvious reasons, to spell it out.Carvell WilliamsLisburn, Northern Ireland • It says it all. Speaking of Tory tactics over the SNP, a Tory grandee asserts, “If I were Cameron I would say I haven’t got much to lose because he’s only got one Scottish seat” (Will Crosby’s shoals sink the good ship UK, 21 April). Except, of course, the preservation of a United Kingdom.Jeremy BeechamLabour, House of Lords |