Tory cabinet minister boasts that democracy in Scotland is dead with the chilling threat : "Forget it, Jocks"

The UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has given an interview in the Herald in which he explains that the respect agenda between the UK government and Scotland must "work two ways".  Here is a quick cut-out-and-keep guide to Mr Fallon's startling notion of each side's required contribution to this vital process of mutual respect...

The UK government's contribution to the respect agenda :

1) When Scotland narrowly votes against independence because the UK government told the public that was the only way to keep Scotland in the EU, the UK government then attempts to take Scotland out of the EU just three years later.

2) When Scotland votes by an overwhelming margin to stay within the EU, the UK government announces that the result doesn't matter.

3) When the Scottish government presents compromise proposals to ensure that Scotland at least remains in the single market after Brexit, the UK government rejects them out of hand before any negotiations have taken place.

4) When the Scottish people give an overwhelming mandate to a party with an explicit manifesto commitment reserving the right to hold an independence referendum if Scotland is dragged out of the EU against its will, the UK government uses the contemptuous words "Forget it" to announce that the mandate will be totally ignored.

5) When an election result leaves the Scottish Parliament with a pro-referendum majority, the UK government redefines the concept of democracy (but only as it applies to Scotland, naturally), and announces that it doesn't matter who won the election - the test is instead whether the winning party lost a few seats.  If this intriguing principle were to be applied more broadly, it would of course mean that Mrs Thatcher "lost" the 1987 election, that John Major "lost" the 1992 election, and that the European Commission would have been entirely within its rights to overturn every majority decision of the British Parliament between 1987 and 1997.  Basically the Fallon Doctrine is : if you don't give your governing party even more seats than last time, you're automatically voting for colonialism.

Scotland's contribution to the respect agenda :

1) Accepting all of the above without complaint.

2) That's it.

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I don't know about you, but after Fallon's mad imperialist intervention I'd be only too delighted to see Nicola Sturgeon end the phony war within the next few weeks by declaring her intention to hold a referendum in 2018, and holding a vote in the Scottish Parliament to demonstrate that the referendum has majority support among this country's elected representatives.  If the UK government then repeats Fallon's boast that Scottish democracy has been abolished, I'd then be only too delighted to see tens of thousands of people peacefully taking to the streets week after week after week to assert that London's rule in our country will be illegitimate until our right to exercise self-determination at a time of our own choosing is fully respected. Oh, and let's make sure we keep the options of calling a consultative referendum without Westminster permission, and of a snap Holyrood election that will double as an independence referendum, firmly on the table.  If the London establishment truly believe this is a fight they can win, I have just three words for them : Bring It On.

By the way, the Herald article completely misrepresents Panelbase's polling yet again.  It claims that support for holding Indyref 2 "by spring 2019" has "fallen significantly" from 43% to 27%.  That's absolute garbage - support for holding a referendum within a maximum of two years (ie. by early 2019) actually stands at 49.4% in the latest Panelbase poll.  The 27% figure is for the option of "in the next year or two", and is not directly comparable to the 43% figure in an earlier poll which was for a different option of "in the next two or three years".  The date of spring 2019 was never specified in any of Panelbase's questions.

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