347 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
347 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
comment
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columnists
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alancochrane
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8498962
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-----
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# Scottish election results: This day was bound to arrive
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## Alex Salmond's SNP victory was set in motion by Labour and the Lib Dems
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all those years ago.
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![Scottish election results: This day was bound to arrive; Salmond creates
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Scotland's first majority government; Getty][1]
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Salmond creates Scotland's first majority government Photo: Getty
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[![Alan Cochrane][2]][3]
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By [Alan Cochrane][4] 6:52PM BST 06 May 2011
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[Comments][5]
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The birds were still singing when I dragged myself away from the cataclysmic
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events unfolding on the television just after six o'clock, Friday morning.
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Everything looked normal; the paper boys were preparing for their rounds and
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my Pakistani newsagent was as annoyingly cheerful as he is every morning when
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I collected the papers and milk.
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But this wasn't just another day. Not for Scottish politics. Not for Scotland.
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It was the day that was always bound to arrive sooner or later, once Labour
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and the Liberal Democrats - but principally Labour - all those years ago
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decided that they could buy off the demand for a separate Scottish state with
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a devolved parliament.
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The party's big names - that is big Scottish names - John Smith, Gordon Brown,
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George Robertson, Donald Dewar, John Reid, Douglas Alexander and others too
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numerous to mention believed that the way to dish the SNP was to grant them
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half of what they wanted; not an independent parliament but one with a huge
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array of powers but still subservient to the British state.
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Interestingly, Tony Blair never did believe in this devolution stuff but
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although born in Scotland he deferred to those who claimed they knew his
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homeland better. But it was he who had the right instincts.
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And so a Scottish Parliament we got but the big names we didn't. Smith had
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tragically died in 1994, leaving Dewar alone of all the experienced
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Westminster hands to take charge of the new assembly. They may well have sung
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the praises of this new body but the rest of Labour's stars had absolutely no
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intention of having anything to do with it.
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## Related Articles
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* [Alex Salmond: Election swing shows I can win independence referendum][6]
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13 May 2011
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* [Labour risks becoming a 'permanent irrelevance' in Scotland, says Tom
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Harris][7]
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16 May 2011
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* [Salmond's victory is a threat to the Union][8]
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06 May 2011
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* [Scottish Election 2011: 'feeble' Labour campaign all but hands victory to
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Alex Salmond, says Annabel Goldie][9]
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05 May 2011
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They were determined to continue to operate on what they saw was the UK, if
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not world, stage as big-time British cabinet ministers - Chancellors of the
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Exchequer, Defence Secretaries, NATO general secretaries and the like.
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The Scottish Parliament? That was small beer - that was for the little people.
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After Dewar died of a brain haemorrhage in 2000, little people is precisely
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what we got from Scottish Labour.
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Henry McLeish and then Jack McConnell followed as Labour leaders and First
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Ministers at the head of pretty nondescript front benches but the writing was
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on the wall. After a brief - and still mysterious - self-imposed exile at
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Westminster, Alex Salmond returned to lead his party in 2004. And, just as
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he'd always predicted, his superior political skills, honed over decades in
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opposition, allied to a large-than-life personality eventually triumphed. In
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2007 he bagged a one-vote lead over McConnell and formed a minority
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administration.
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The latter went quickly, to be replaced by the mercurial but ultimately
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politically hopeless Wendy Alexander who gave way quickly to the earnest,
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dogged Iain Gray who, although he tried hard, was no match for Salmond and the
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die was cast.
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Oh yes, I nearly forgot. Just in case of accidents, these brilliant big-name
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Labour strategists who dreamed up the Holyrood parliament devised a voting
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system that they said would guarantee - repeat guarantee - that the SNP could
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ever get an overall majority and wrest Scotland from the Union.
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What happened on Thursday night? The SNP got an overall majority. There's
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strategy for you.
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Devolution has taken us to where some of us always thought it would take us -
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to the brink of the break up of the United Kingdom. How could it have been
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otherwise?
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The nationalists have played the Unionist parties in Scotland like they would
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a salmon (no pun intended), huffing and puffing as every concession was
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offered them, always demanding more and - incredibly - always getting more.
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And with every morsel that was offered and accepted, the Nats got closer to
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the position where the voters could see that they were no extremist grouping
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but a mainstream outfit that had assumed such a mantle of respectability that
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the other parties deferred to them time and time again. And as that image of
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political propriety grew, even the monarch - who Alex Salmond has conceded
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will be head of state of an independent Scotland - began to treat with the
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Nats.
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What else could she do? The people were voting for them in ever-increasing
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numbers.
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Incredibly, even as the Nats grew in strength, the Unionist parties contrived
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to throw them even more bones - this time in the shape of the Scotland Bill,
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currently going through both Westminster and Holyrood parliaments. And in
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spite of what I know to be his personal reservations on the issue, Prime
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Minister David Cameron was persuaded by the Tory leadership in Scotland to go
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along with this further assault on what makes the Union whole.
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And talking of the Tory leadership, what a disaster has been their campaign.
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Whilst Iain Gray could be criticised for ignoring Alex Salmond for much of the
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campaign, Annabel Goldie actually talked him up. She wanted him to win and
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constantly havered about how she could use her MSPs to keep him under control.
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That aim has turned to ashes in her mouth. Annabel has fewer votes and fewer
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MSPs than she started out with and Alex Salmond bows to no-one now, least of
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all a party that has had such a poor election - and lost some of its best
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performers.
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Miss Goldie told this newspaper that she intended to carry on as leader; she
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must surely now have to think again.
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Iain Gray has correctly resigned as Labour leader. Tavish Scott may be going
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soon, so bad has been his result. Annabel Goldie shouldn't be long behind
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them.
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Only Alex Salmond sails serenely on. Can nothing stop him? What about an early
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referendum on independence to put the issue to bed once and for all. I think
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the Unionist cause will win.
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But after decades of sell outs and appeasement, I'm not as sure as I used to
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be.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alancochrane/8498962/Scottish-
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election-results-This-day-was-bound-to-arrive.html
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Telegraph
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## [Alan Cochrane][3]
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* ### [Politics »][15]
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* ### [Scotland »][16]
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* ### [Comment »][17]
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* ### [Personal View »][18]
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* ### [SNP »][19]
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In comment
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[![Lord Young][20] ][21]
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### [Lord Young has always been politically nave][21]
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[![Scotland's unhappy association with alcohol requires urgent and drastic
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action. ][22] ][23]
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### [Politicking MSPs must follow doctor's orders on alcohol pricing][23]
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[![Trident submarine HMS Vengeance][24] ][25]
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### [Faslane is for Trident, not Nat rowing boats][25]
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[What are these?][11]
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Share:
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* [ ][10]
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* [ ][12]
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* [ ][13]
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* [Tweet][14]
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* Advertisement
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* TODAY
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* PAST WEEK
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* PAST MONTH
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MORE
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