Swinney’s indy referendum Bill timing couldn’t be worse

Please just stop it. Please. The First Minister has just published yet another draft referendum Bill, which asks the question: 'Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes or No.'

John Swinney insists the Scottish people are ready for another divisive referendum and that the UK government must transfer the necessary powers immediately to allow a vote to go ahead.

Swinney may be too busy dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes to plug his government’s £700 million budget deficit, but just in case he missed the news: Andy Burnham, the new UK Prime Minister, is far more popular in Scotland than you are, First Minister.

A poll last week revealed that the Prime Minister is the only major political figure with a positive net favourability rating among Scottish voters. This doesn’t chime with Swinney’s assertion that the people of Scotland are ready to leave the UK behind.

Nor does the prospect of a re-run of a Scottish referendum fit with Burnham’s world view. During a visit to Belfast, coincidentally at the same time as Swinney published his fantasy Bill, the Prime Minister told journalists that there would be no referendum on a united Ireland. “It’s off the table,” he said. He’s hardly like to call up Swinney and tell him to “go ahead lad, you can have your vote.”

The only thing John Swinney got right when he announced the Bill is that the world has changed fundamentally since 2014, when the majority of Scots rejected independence. It has become far less secure.

Economies, including ours, are more fragile, the rise in the cost of living has affected us all, no matter where we live and the threat of war is at its highest for decades. And, as has been widely accepted, Brexit badly damaged Britain. Imagine how bad the impact of Scotland leaving the UK would be on our future prospects.

So First Minister, you have had your fun. You now have a meaningless Bill that you can wave around at your party’s conference in October to excite your hardcore activists.

But if you truly put the people of Scotland first – all the people – you would focus on bread and butter issues like health and education and leave the fantasy politics to others.