Hamsters on the wheel

Yesterday, commenting on the latest ‘one more push’ urging from Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, I likened the independence industry to one of those wheels pet hamsters run on. It sucks up all the energy of the independence movement but never goes anywhere. It was a throwaway remark. But it struck me afterwards what an apt analogy this is for the last ten or eleven years. Day in and day out we’ve had the SNP and/or The National and/or Believe in Scotland encouraging us to keep the treadmill of their orthodoxy turning by holding independence just out of our reach. Day in and day out, the independence movement has dutifully trudged, only to find independence still beyond our grasp.

That same metaphor came to mind again today as I read that the SNP is to introduce a Westminster bill to devolve indyref powers. Then, as I read the comments lauding this brilliant political manoeuvre, I was overcome by a wave of the despairing weariness that has become so familiar. It doesn’t seem to matter how stale or insipid the fare offered by the independence industry is; people still lap it up.

I stopped doing the marches and rallies only in part on account of my legs not being up to the job any more. The other thing that put me off was the realisation that I was listening to the same speeches I’d heard at every rally I’d attended since the 2014 sham independence referendum. Even more affecting was the sight and sound of independence activists cheering those speeches as they held Saltires aloft. There was a moment at a gathering outside the Scottish Parliament building when it occurred to me that these same people would be applauding the same speeches five, ten, or twenty years hence.

This latest bit of political farce from the SNP isn’t even original. Ash Regan and Neal Hanvey have both played this game. Nothing came of either of those Bills, and nothing will come of this one. The treadmill will spin. Scotland’s cause will make no progress. Apologists for the SNP will tell us it is a worthwhile exercise even if it does nothing other than demonstrate the pointlessness of the exercise. We are told that having this Bill squashed by English MPs will show how powerless Scotland is within the British state. We’ve been told the same thing on countless occasions over the past decade. We are told the same story every time the SNP launches some ‘bold initiative’ which everybody knows will be devoid of effect. We are told it will increase support for independence when people see how badly Scotland is treated. The SNP continues to invite bad treatment. Support for independence doesn’t increase at all. But just you wait! Next time, it’ll work!

It will never work. Westminster cannot transfer powers which supersede its own powers. The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty forbids it. A fact so obvious we must suppose at least one of those eight SNP MPs is aware of it. They surely know that the Bill will not become an Act. It is not unreasonable to suppose they also know that the sole purpose of the exercise is to make it look as if the SNP is actually doing something on the constitutional issue.

The treadmill turns. We make no progress.