Donald Macleod: Pompous PM has relit my desire for a new referendum

WHAT a jaw-dropping stramash of seismic proportions these past seven days have been.

Harold Wilson was wrong when he said that a week was a long time in politics.

It’s not, it’s an eternity, especially when referenda are the cause of the maelstrom.

From headlines screaming Wrexit, Act Of Betrayal, Over to EU, and May Dazed To Scots’ Fury, this really has been a whirlwind few days.

In recent weeks, only the master of triumphalism, stir and spin, President Trump, could whip up so much political animosity between two governing parties.

Not anymore! On this side of the pond, anything The Donald can do, it seems we can do better!

Please welcome, from stage left, fiery First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. From stage right, the finger-wagging Prime Minister of a now very disunited kingdom, Theresa May.

On Monday, Oor Nicola, in what many regard as a master stroke, others an ill-considered punt on Scotland’s future, set the constitutional heather ablaze when she announced her wish to hold a second independence referendum.

But May, already out of touch with Scotland and its people, has made damn sure in her vengeful anger that the end of the union is now a forgone conclusion.

Her pompous announcements that “now is not the time” and that “we should come together” was a disgraceful snub and put-down of the democratic rights and privileges of the Scottish Parliament and, most importantly, the Scottish people.

She didn’t so much pour petrol on the fire of the constitutional battle but dropped napalm bombs on it.

Claiming a referendum will cause uneconomic uncertainty was laughable, coming from someone whose party are guilty of causing economic uncertainty over their shambolic handling of the divisive Brexit referendum.

Even though I support Scottish independence, I didn’t really want another referendum. Not just now at any rate.

Call it election fatigue or whatever you like.

The last one certainly took its toll with all the name-calling, the arguing and the divisions it caused.

It was two years of bitter, heated debate, never mind the scaremongering, the bending of the truth and downright lies.

All that and more had worn me out and left me feeling more than a little jaded.

I, like most Scots, were happy to toodle along for a few years before trying again, happy to wait and see what the lamentable Brexit negotiations might deliver in order to make a more informed decision to gently break away or not.

The recent business rates debacle had also dampened my enthusiasm for another referendum. Not any more!

Theresa May, and the belittling from the leaders of the other two parties who only have one Scottish MP each, have put paid to that little notion.

What has become crystal clear, beyond any shadow of a doubt in my mind, is that the timing of another referendum must be decided upon by the Scottish Parliament not Westminster. And certainly certainly not by an unelected PM in Theresa May.

If not, then she has almost single-handedly sealed the fate of the union by setting Scotland on course for a unilateral declaration of independence.

And that would be tragic if that were to be the case.