When will Nicola Sturgeon’s party demand a moment referendum? When they think they can win it,of courseThe blue backdrop to the platform swirls with a giant flag. The conference slogan has the word STRONGER” in a super-size font that punches you in the back of the eyeballs. And when she comes on stage, there is mass adulation for the woman who leads the party. When I arrived at the SNP conference in Aberdeen, or a colleague in the Scottish media shook my hand with the wry greeting: “Welcome to North Korea.” I was more reminded of Tory conferences in the mid-1980s when Margaret Thatcher was at her zenith (the point of culmination; peak). The choreographed displays of adoration for the leader. The absence of visible dissent. The party conference not as a forum for meaningful debate but as a triumphalist rally.
Nationalists have rather a lot to be triumphalist approximately. They lost the referendum 12 months ago,but they have since won everything else. Their leader is favorite with both a party that has ballooned in size and a wider Scottish public that looks on her very favourably. They eviscerated all their rivals north of the Tweed at the general election and the polls are pointing to another stonking victory in next May’s elections to the Holyrood parliament and an increase in their governing majority. This despite growing scrutiny of their eight-year record in power in Edinburgh and a lengthening list of negatives on the balance sheet.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com