GRAHAM WALKER: Unionists have role to play in Scots debate
PERHAPS predictably only a portion of Reg Empey’s recent remarks about the prospect of Scottish independence and its impact on Northern Ireland was given prominence.
Talk of a Scottish breakaway from the UK possibly ‘reigniting’ the conflict here was bound to be seized upon by the media, and such remarks were not likely to help the morale of the pro-Union community.
Neither were the comments about Unionists finding themselves sandwiched between ‘foreign countries’ edifying.
Empey may simply have been trying to kick-start a process of engagement on the part of Unionists with the Scottish debate that he clearly also wishes to be a constructive one.
Indeed, the part of his comments given less attention concerned the need for Unionists to get the ‘tone’ of their contributions right, and to avoid appearing to ‘bully’ or ‘hector’ the Scots. Amen to that.
And, yes, people in Northern Ireland should certainly concern themselves with the Scottish issue and its broader effects on the UK as a whole.
It behoves pro-Union political players in all parts of the UK to not only ensure the success of devolution in making a positive difference to those parts of the UK that possess it; but also to work at preserving and strengthening the benefits to all of UK citizenship.
The pro-Union parties in Scotland are currently struggling to lay out a cogent case for the Union.
Labour cannot be seen to work too closely with the parties that form the government to which they are opposed at Westminster. And the Conservatives are now viewed as a ‘toxic’ brand in Scotland.
From the point at which the UK can be said to have had something resembling a modern democracy, from the Great Reform Act of 1832, the label ‘Conservative’ has struggled for political acceptance in Scotland.
It was only the split in the Liberal Party over Irish Home Rule that allowed the Tories to score some successes in Scotland in the late 19th and early 20th century. They had made significant strides to popularise their appeal – primarily on the basis of religion and Empire patriotism – although they could not shake off the stigma of being viewed as the party of privilege and of the landed interest.
In 1912, in response to the controversy over the Ulster crisis, the Conservatives formally merged with the ‘Liberal Unionists’ to form the Scottish Unionist Party.
From then until 1965 this party was known as ‘The Unionists’ and it remains to this day the only one to have won over half the Scottish vote at a general election, in 1955.
The ‘Unionists’ changed their name to Conservatives in 1965 and many political observers have pointed to this as a contributory factor in the party’s demise in Scotland. There were other deeper reasons for the Conservative slump: religious affiliation was in sharp decline, the Empire had gone, the old culture of deference was in retreat, and more and more Scots were questioning the benefits of Union.
The party was led nationally by Margaret Thatcher from 1975. Her style and manner grated with Scottish voters and she clearly had little time for Scottish sensitivities around national institutions and a separate identity. Her decimation of traditional heavy industry added to the alienation of the Scottish electorate. The decisive referendum result in favour of a Scottish Parliament in 1997 was in large part a measure of the determination of the Scots to never again leave themselves at the mercy of an ideologically driven Tory Prime Minister.
Last year during the Scottish Conservative Party leadership election, the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Murdo Fraser proposed to wind up the party and re-launch it as a modern right-of-centre political force without the name ‘Conservative’.
He was defeated by his colleague Ruth Davidson, whose stance was ultra traditionalist. Arguably Fraser was right and the last hope for the Conservative-minded in Scotland has now gone.
Davidson has proved a singularly ineffective leader so far, actually endorsing SNP First Minister Alex Salmond’s blatantly biased wording of the proposed referendum question. The more the Tories try to contribute to the anti-independence argument in Scotland the more the other parties on that side of the argument will cringe and Salmond will rejoice.
So, how is it all relevant to Northern Ireland? First, if the new Conservative Party set to emerge here, or Conservatives from other parts of the UK, see fit to advise the Scots then this will play to Salmond’s advantage.
The spectre of Thatcherism is sure to be invoked. The survival of the Union is, ironically, most at risk from the Conservatives. The party is regarded in Scotland as essentially an English phenomenon.
The DUP and UUP do not carry this ‘Conservative’ baggage, at least not in their party names. However, they would both do well to muzzle the rabid right-wingers in their ranks, and to stress what remains of their cross-class and ‘broad church’ credentials if they wish to be given a fair hearing in Scotland.
The kind of arguments likely to sway Scots in defence of the Union are now overwhelmingly those that celebrate the benefits of genuinely British institutions and achievements as the Welfare State, the NHS, and educational opportunities for all; and those that stress what the ordinary people of the different parts of the UK share and take pride in.
The pro-Union community here has a role to play in the debate. But it should keep in mind certain political facts of life.
l Graham Walker is professor of political history at Queen’s University, Belfast
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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Comments
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rthomas
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:53 PM"Civil rights abuses ignited the troubles". Codswhallop! It was pure , raw ,sectarian hatred for Protestants.
belfastview
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:09 PMA litany of civil rights abuses ignited the troubles. The idea that a referendum in Scotland could is total drivel. Scotland's future is up to the Scottish people, simple as. The politicians and commentors are a lot more fixated on this issue that the average person on the street.
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