Choose Scotland? Perhaps in Swinney’s parallel universe

R ejoice! The SNP has voted to boycott X. Can they really mean it? Is it farewell to the infamous Cybernats who long dominated Twitter, monstering anyone who dared to deny that Scotland was actually subsidising the hated English colonisers? Yoon! Fifth columnist! Traitor! Presumably the Cybernats are now departing for Bluesky. If so, the transgender activists and Guardian readers there had better watch out. They don’t know what they’re taking on. Most commented 1 Starlink deliberately slowed in Ukraine, says Zelensky Russia-Ukraine war 1,135 comments 2 Scotland plane crash: boy, 16, and flight instructor, 80, killed Scotland 61 comments It is the end of an era, and not just in social media. A lot of the energy has gone out of the SNP on and offline. “They’re frustrated and don’t know why,” Robin McAlpine, the independence commentator, told The National. “They know something’s missing and something needs to be done, but they don’t know what it is.” Not that any of these existential doubts are afflicting John Swinney. “The independence referendum campaign has begun ,” he announced, speaking from a podium in a parallel reality. This referendum campaign seems to amount to a media and polling venture called Choose Scotland. “The most sophisticated campaign we have ever undertaken,” said the first minister. Well, since the last one. Top stories 1 US inflation hotter than expected as Iran war stokes fuel costs Economics Choose Scotland will be backed by “the party’s six-figure war chest”, he said, choosing his words carefully. Nicola Sturgeon’s “ring-fenced” six-figure referendum war chest from 2017 famously evaporated, much to the annoyance of some donors. A judicial review in the Court of Session, led by Stuart Campbell of Wings Over Scotland , is under way as we speak. Advertisement Ring-fencing aside, “Choose Scotland” is certainly a bold catchline, echoing as it does the famous “Choose life” soliloquy from the film Trainspotting , which parodied anti-drug campaigns. “I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else,” said Renton, the heroin addict played by Ewan McGregor . “Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?” Top stories 1 European diplomats ‘attacked by Israeli settlers’ in West Bank Middle East 2 Why an all-inclusive cruise is the ultimate single-parent getaway Cruises 3 How Lisbon’s coolest neighbourhood is shaking off its staid past Lisbon 4 17 of the best hotels in the Bahamas Bahamas 5 Why we’re dressing like introverts, instead of screaming for attention LUXX A lot of Scots also chose heroin, which is one reason why we have the worst rate of drug deaths in Europe , so this is perhaps an appropriate campaign theme, though I’m not sure most brand managers would agree. Politics newsletter Get our daily insider’s guide to Westminster, plus a rundown of PMQs every Wednesday. Sign up with one click You’ve successfully signed up to the Politics newsletter Explore our newsletters An error occurred. Please use the link below. Politics newsletter Explore our newsletters But no one is really listening anyway. According to the latest YouGov opinion poll, fewer than a fifth of Scots now regard independence as a significant issue. Swinney may think the “stars are aligning” and that independence is inevitable, but few voters do. His claim on Saturday that he won a “landslide” in the May Holyrood elections should send the BBC’s More or Less fact checkers rushing to their calculators. The SNP lost more than 10 per cent of its vote and is now a fragile minority government. SNP membership has more than halved since 2019 from its peak of 125,691 and it would be hard put to raise £600,000 today, ring-fenced or not. Swinney is not bothered, though. He is clearly a man at peace with himself and loving his second life as leader. He could have been talking personally when he spoke of the temper of Scotland under nationalist rule. “No fragile bravado as in days of old,” he said, “but the quiet confidence of a nation ever more comfortable in its own skin.” Advertisement So comfortable was he that he allowed a rare display of emotion. The first minister choked up and said he was in politics to provide “a better future” for his son Matthew, who was in the audience watching. Tearing up during a leadership address seems to be the latest thing in political public relations. Andy Burnham famously started greetin’ during his speech to the Labour conference last month when talking about his father, and about how Swinney had said that he was to be the last prime minister of the UK on the very day Andy’s dad died. The swine. But Swinney clearly relished having Burnham as a warm-up act for this conference. The prime minister came to Motherwell on Friday to display his penchant for wandering into constitutional minefields . He apparently hoped to enlist the Scottish government in his “mission” to “rewire the UK” by devolving powers from Holyrood to deprived regions of Scotland. Aye, right. This gave Swinney the opportunity to have a go at Manchester Man. “Scotland is no city. We are no region. We are a nation, and soon we will be an independent nation.” And, by the way, we are already rewiring Scotland by merging councils and slashing health boards. Burnham’s presence in Scotland also allowed the SNP to recite his recent remarks at PMQs equating Scotland with Northern Ireland. He said that “the situation is exactly the same” as far as a referendum or border poll is concerned, implying that a second independence referendum should happen if there is a demand for it. He has since “clarified” this by saying it is “off limits”. Advertisement Swinney sees all this as evidence of unionist discombobulation before the relentless march of nationalism. There is “panic in the streets of London”, he says, now that the SNP, Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru are dominating the parliaments of the periphery. And yes, that was a cheeky allusion to Panic by the Smiths, Manchester’s finest. Burnham’s decision to reopen the Brexit wars has allowed the SNP to play its biggest grievance card. “The prime minister needs to explain,” said Stephen Flynn, the transport secretary, “why it is legitimate to reopen the democratic question of the EU and not legitimate to reopen the democratic question of independence for Scotland.” Indeed. The prime minister is very keen on public control of buses, and so is the first minister. Swinney announced that the good folk of Aberdeen are also to have £2 bus fares — though one doubts they’ll see this as adequate compensation for losing thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industry . Swinney didn’t mention Scotland’s oil or Burnham’s equivocation over the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields , even though the SNP conference had, in effect, voted to dump the “presumption” against drilling. Perhaps he didn’t want to upset Gillian Mackay, the Green Party co-leader, who was inexplicably allowed to address the conference. The SNP leader may well need the support of the Greens to get his legislation through parliament, given his reduced majority. He needs to dispel any bad blood from the chaotic collapse of the SNP-Green alliance in 2024 . It could be a cold, hard winter in Holyrood and Swinney will need all the friends he can get.