Shame on Scottish Tories for their Vichy sell-out

Gerald Warner says that Scotland’s Conservatives, far from standing their ground on devolution, have jumped with relish on the gravy train of the Holyrood parliament

The Scottish Play has degenerated into a farce and the indigenous Tories have lost the plot. When the constitutional future of the United Kingdom moved centre-stage in late 2007, Unionists were heartened by the deftness of touch David Cameron brought to this issue. It contrasted with the directionless drift of his supposed allies in the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Scottish separatist tendency.

The Scottish Tories have gone native. In the run-up to the devolution referendum on 11 September 1997, they proclaimed vociferously that the creation of a devolved parliament would end civilisation as we had known it. By 12 September, in the immediate wake of the success of the devolutionist campaign, Armageddon was magically transformed into the ‘settled will of the Scottish people’ and a welcome reform in which the Scottish Conservatives would enthusiastically participate.