In creating a team to try and secure a Tory victory in 2015, David Cameron may have tipped the balance in the debate on Scotland’s future - and not in the way he wants.
In creating a team to try and secure a Tory victory in 2015, David Cameron may have tipped the balance in the debate on Scotland’s future – and not in a good way
Has David Cameron just provided a shot in the arm of the Yes to Scottish independence campaign?
That’s certainly one way of looking at yesterday’s reshuffle.
As Tory women strolled up Downing Street in an effort to somehow gloss over this government’s abysmal record when it comes to women’s issues, the country now has a government and a cabinet that is more sceptical about the UK’s place in Europe.
As the new defence secretary Michael Fallon declared on the Today programme this morning, “it’s certainly a Eurosceptic cabinet”.
Responding to the reshuffle, especially the promotion of the arch Eurosceptic Philip Hammond to foreign secretary, Alex Salmond warned that “the clear risk for Scotland now is that we are dragged out of Europe against our wishes, with hugely damaging consequences for jobs and investment, if we do not take our future into our own hands”.
Unsurprisingly, he went on to conclude that “only a Yes vote in September can secure Scotland’s place in Europe”.
Putting aside the ambiguity around how long it may or may not take for an independent Scotland to take its place in the EU (if it is allowed that is), the reality is that the first minister’s words have more than a ring of truth to it.
Recent polling by ICM for the Scotsman has shown that if faced in September with the prospect of the UK being “very likely” to leave the European Union, support for independence increased by 3 per cent.
Commenting on the reshuffle in its editorial this morning, the Daily Record has warned that “this is a lurch to the right and a reshuffle that threw the future of the UK right back into the cement mixer”:
“Just when the Better Together side appear to have steadied their ship” the paper has commented, “Cameron’s short-sighted re-arrangement of his deck chairs puts the Union back into dangerous waters.”
In creating what he sees as a team to secure a Conservative victory in 2015, David Cameron might just have tipped the balance in the debate on Scotland’s future in a direction he might not have considered or indeed wants.
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15 Responses to “Cameron has played into the SNP’s hands”
Kryten2k35
No. The last council elections were a nice indicator of how people will be voting, and Labour may have well walked in, said their name and dropped the mic.
eireanne
well yes, those are obvious enough. They hardly seem reason enough to go down in history as the man who broke up the UK. So what else makes you think he wants to be that man?
Leon Wolfeson
Cameron’s entire problem is lack of strategic focus. I believe those are more than sufficient for him.
Arthur
The SNP’s European Election campaign didn’t work out too well for them. Apart from winning in Scotland of course. Which is better than Labour did in the UK. Or the Tories, or the Lib Dems…
John Mitchell
True, but as I posted previously the SNP’s main goal was to shut out UKIP and win 3 MEPs to bolster their narrative of difference. On that they failed and I also believe that their vote share was down, albeit marginally.