Charles Moore’s notes: Why Ireland fears Scottish independence

In Dublin, where I am writing this column, people are watching the Scottish referendum campaign more closely than in London. Despite the polls, they almost expect a Yes vote, but most do not want one. People fear that Yes would weaken the UK and therefore make it a less useful ally for Ireland in the EU. They also think that an independent Scotland might overtake Ireland as a cute little place for foreign investors who like the combination of kilts, bagpipes and general Celtic carry-on with tax breaks and commercial access to the Anglosphere. Finally, they worry that Scottish independence would reopen the Irish question. At present, the Republic enjoys the fact that the settlement in the North has driven the call for a United Ireland into the background. The example of a breakaway Scotland would stir it up all over again. The more one thinks about the Scottish vote, the more multi-dimensionally dangerous it seems.

Appearing on Pat Kenny’s Newstalk show here, I take advantage of the moment to talk a bit about Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. On the BBC World at One the day after Mandela’s death, a man called Pat Hart representing ‘community radio stations’, such as BCfm, said that Mrs Thatcher had called Mandela a terrorist and a ‘grubby little man’. She didn’t, but of course Hart was uncorrected by the BBC. He said that the remark had been made ‘not that long ago’, and in this, at least, he seems to be right. It was made after her death. It sprang forth in a Daily Mirror blog before her funeral and in an internet poster campaign comparing Mrs Thatcher unfavourably with Clement Attlee. It has been endlessly repeated, without evidence. She was certainly no friend to the ANC (which was why they tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent Mandela from seeing her after he came out of prison), but in fact she, of all foreign leaders, was the one who most often personally pressed the release of Mandela on the white regime.