Spare us your crocodile tears, Wings Over Argentina: former independence supporter Stuart Campbell backs Alba man's call for a referendum on abolishing the Scottish Parliament

The only thing missing from the collection now is Campbell calling for the abolition of Scottish local councils, so that even our bins are emptied (or not) by the UK state.  But doubtless he'll get there very, very soon.

Rather brazenly, Campbell starts his meandering demand for the abolition of Scottish self-government with yet another whinge about the SNP, which he claims is offering "an abject vision of a bleak future for independence".  Now, as regular readers know, I have my own concerns about the SNP's lack of a credible strategy for delivering independence, but the last person in a position to offer any critique is Campbell, who on general election day last year instructed his readers to vote Labour - and, get this, told them that in doing so they'd be bringing independence closer.  Given that he got the outcome he wanted, and dozens of pro-independence MPs were replaced with dozens of anti-independence MPs, I'd suggest what Campbell's readers really need to be hearing from him now is a progress report on when we can expect his brilliant "vote Labour, get indy" strategy to bear fruit.  While he's about it, he might like to apologise for unfortunate side-effects such as the scrapping of winter fuel payments for pensioners, devastating benefits cuts for disabled people, and the genocide in Gaza - although admittedly he seems pretty cool with the latter.  But hey, I'm sure all this pain will be well worth it once Keir Starmer delivers independence, doubtless within the next week or two.

Alternatively, Campbell could show some dignified remorse by falling silent for a few years.  I think that's what I'd be doing in his shoes.

As his post trundles closer to backing the call from Mike Dailly of the "pro-independence Alba Party" (ahem) for a referendum on the abolition of the Scottish Parliament and the resumption of direct rule from London, Campbell triumphantly quotes a string of "indy supporters" who want to get rid of Holyrood.  Yeah, just one snag, Stew: on what planet are people who want direct London rule "indy supporters"?  It's a contradiction in terms.  The words you're looking for are "hardline unionists".  One of these people is Morag Kerr, and yes, I remember when she used to be an independence supporter, because at the time she was a regular commenter on Scot Goes Pop.  But this is her quote - 

"Honestly, I remember the euphoria as the result of the 1997 referendum came in, and until 2015 I wasn't disappointed.  Now, thanks to her, I practically want to raze Holyrood to the ground and sow the ground with salt."

Those are not the words of an independence supporter.  And no, I'm not interested in any sophistry along the lines of "Jim Sillars opposed devolution in the 1990s while supporting independence", because his reasoning was very different.  In this case, we're expected to believe that people who despise devolved government with every fibre of their being would somehow support the same politicians (and it would be exactly the same politicians) having even more power in the parliament and government of an independent sovereign state.  Self-evidently, they would not and do not support that.  It's London rule they hanker after.

And so does Campbell, however much he tries to disguise it by modifying the original Alba proposal of a straight Yes/No referendum on abolishing devolution to turn it into a binary choice between full independence and total abolition of the Scottish Parliament.  He would face exactly the same question as above: how can he pose as someone who wants all powers to be transferred to Holyrood, when he's already admitted that the only reason he wants to put its existence on the line is that he viscerally hates the institution?  And that's before we even get to the inconvenient question of how he can justify subverting democracy with a 'stunt' referendum stitch-up that, no matter what its outcome, would end devolution - something that the Scottish people voted in favour of by an overwhelming 3-1 margin in the 1997 referendum. (And yes, the option of independence was excluded from the 1997 referendum, but opinion polls at the time left no doubt that devolution would have been the winner of a multi-option vote.)