Nearly 20 years ago, during one of the many impasses on the road to ‘peace’ in Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams reminded his opponents that the republican movement would set the terms of any agreement. The IRA reserved a power of veto. ‘They haven’t gone away, you know,’ he said.
Scotland is not Ulster, of course, but the Scottish nationalists haven’t gone away either. Anyone who thinks the referendum settled this country’s constitutional future hasn’t been paying attention. The long war continues, albeit — and mercifully — in figurative terms. If anything, defeat has encouraged the nationalists to redouble their efforts.
The SNP is the only political party in Scotland that can credibly claim to be a mass organisation. It will soon, in all likelihood, have 100,000 members. Last weekend Nicola Sturgeon, its new leader, addressed a crowd of more than 10,000 enthusiasts in Glasgow, the largest such rally in Scotland in 40 years.
This week a new newspaper, the National, was launched to press the case for independence.
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