The common cause of Scottish Unionism

Although it cannot be stated publicly, Labour and the Conservatives have much common cause in Scotland now. They won’t stand down in each other’s favour at the next election; but expect ‘paper’ candidates in constituencies where one is much stronger than the other and the Nationalist is vulnerable. Wavering SNP supporters can be divided into welfare drones (who have benefited under the SNP to the detriment of spending on health and schools), and ‘tartan Tories’, social conservatives who hoped that Kate Forbes would be SNP leader. Labour courts the former, the Tories the latter. Both parties pray that Humza Yousaf, the new First Minister, remains in office. He is the gift that keeps on giving. The biggest task for Sir Keir Starmer is to get out from under the weight of Gordon Brown on the subject. Brown led the original thrust for devolution in the 1990s. His political aim of thus entrenching Labour power collapsed utterly, yet he still thinks he knows how to dominate his native land. Eighteen months ago he launched Labour’s paper A New Britain, which advocated federalism, including in England. Sir Keir supported it but is gradually realising that the loss of Westminster control over tax in Scotland would weaken a Labour government’s power there and thus encourage an SNP revival. Unionism trumps left/right ideological differences. 

Scotland under the SNP has, oddly, been more lavish towards monarchical ceremony than the government is Westminster. The SNP leadership is mostly republican, but it does not want to frighten off the royalist vote. This difference is affecting the coronation in a tiny way. Traditionally, the chief heralds, the Kings of Arms, wear (as befits their description) small crowns for the ceremony. There are four of them – Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy and Lord Lyon. The last is the chief Scottish herald. This time, in the spiritless spirit of modernisation, it was planned that the Kings of Arms would not wear their crowns for the ceremony, in line with the decision to deprive the peers of their coronets.