What has the SNP in common with Syriza?
Today the UK government withdrew proposals to bring the law on hunting in England and Wales into line with the law in Scotland, because the Scottish National Party has just made a U-turn and announced that they will now oppose adoption in England and Wales of the same law which they, as the majority government in Scotland for the past four years have apparently been perfectly happy to leave in place for Scotland.
Let's repeat that.SNP representatives from Scotland constituencies have just successfully blocked, at least for the time being, a proposal for England and Wales to adopt the same law on hunting that Scotland currently has.
Only weeks ago the SNP leader told the Guardian that this was an issue on which SNP members of parliament would not interfere in English affairs and they have only very recently taken the same promise down from their website.
It is perfectly obvious what is going on here and it has nothing whatsoever to do with foxhunting.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything that the Countryside Alliance said about it this afternoon:
"For reasons that have little, if anything, to do with the amendments under consideration, the SNP have decided to break their often repeated commitment not to vote on the Hunting Act which only affects England and Wales.
As recently as February Nicola Sturgeon said: “The SNP have a longstanding position of not voting on matters that purely affect England – such as foxhunting south of the border, for example – and we stand by that.”
Yesterday, however, the SNP said that they would be voting against the proposals to remind “an arrogant UK government of just how slender their majority is”.
In the face of the SNP’s U-turn the Government has postponed the vote. This was the correct decision. This is now clearly a constitutional issue rather than one about wildlife management or animal welfare and we look forward to the Government bringing the amendments back to Parliament in due course."
The Countryside Alliance put their finger on the SNP's game by pointing to the quote about an "arrogant UK government."
What the SNP are doing here is deliberately setting out to upset English people who they don't like, starting with people involved in hunting who they naively image are all rich country squires, particularly setting out to annoy the Conservative party, and especially David Cameron himself.
The SNP have abandoned their long-standing principles out of calculated spite. Their obvious aim is to make Conservatives angry in the hope that we will make mistakes which will bolster the SNP's position, and to deliberately stir up hostility between Scotland and elements of English society in the hope that the bad blood they are fomenting will increase the long-term prospects of Scottish Independence.
I asked in the title of this blog post what the SNP have in common with Syriza. The answer is that the approach Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP appear to be taking to negotiating with David Cameron and the Conservatives is beginning to remind me of that which Alexis Tsipras and Syriza took to Angela Merkel and the Germans. A Labour commentator said this week of Syriza that
"making impossible demands of your creditors while comparing them to Nazis, torturers and terrorists has not proved a good way to win friends."
Just as Syriza went out of their way to insult their creditors, the SNP appear to be actively going out of their way to irritate the UK government and a large block of it's supporters.
Have a little look, Nicola, at the deal Greece has just had to sign if they wanted to stay in the Euro. Does it really look to you like the strategy of trying to get a better deal out of Germany by being nasty to them was a big success?
Now it may be that the SNP, unlike Syriza, don't want a deal at all. Maybe they would like nothing better than a deadlock and an exchange of insults and plan to use this to justify calling a second referendum on Independence, and think stirring up bad blood between England and Scotland will help them to win at the second attempt.
If that is their strategy the SNP are taking considerable risks with the wellbeing of Scotland. Banking up anger and hostility rarely bodes well for the future of any country. Didn't stop the SNP before, though, did it?
Let's repeat that.SNP representatives from Scotland constituencies have just successfully blocked, at least for the time being, a proposal for England and Wales to adopt the same law on hunting that Scotland currently has.
Only weeks ago the SNP leader told the Guardian that this was an issue on which SNP members of parliament would not interfere in English affairs and they have only very recently taken the same promise down from their website.
It is perfectly obvious what is going on here and it has nothing whatsoever to do with foxhunting.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything that the Countryside Alliance said about it this afternoon:
"For reasons that have little, if anything, to do with the amendments under consideration, the SNP have decided to break their often repeated commitment not to vote on the Hunting Act which only affects England and Wales.
As recently as February Nicola Sturgeon said: “The SNP have a longstanding position of not voting on matters that purely affect England – such as foxhunting south of the border, for example – and we stand by that.”
Yesterday, however, the SNP said that they would be voting against the proposals to remind “an arrogant UK government of just how slender their majority is”.
In the face of the SNP’s U-turn the Government has postponed the vote. This was the correct decision. This is now clearly a constitutional issue rather than one about wildlife management or animal welfare and we look forward to the Government bringing the amendments back to Parliament in due course."
The Countryside Alliance put their finger on the SNP's game by pointing to the quote about an "arrogant UK government."
What the SNP are doing here is deliberately setting out to upset English people who they don't like, starting with people involved in hunting who they naively image are all rich country squires, particularly setting out to annoy the Conservative party, and especially David Cameron himself.
The SNP have abandoned their long-standing principles out of calculated spite. Their obvious aim is to make Conservatives angry in the hope that we will make mistakes which will bolster the SNP's position, and to deliberately stir up hostility between Scotland and elements of English society in the hope that the bad blood they are fomenting will increase the long-term prospects of Scottish Independence.
I asked in the title of this blog post what the SNP have in common with Syriza. The answer is that the approach Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP appear to be taking to negotiating with David Cameron and the Conservatives is beginning to remind me of that which Alexis Tsipras and Syriza took to Angela Merkel and the Germans. A Labour commentator said this week of Syriza that
"making impossible demands of your creditors while comparing them to Nazis, torturers and terrorists has not proved a good way to win friends."
Just as Syriza went out of their way to insult their creditors, the SNP appear to be actively going out of their way to irritate the UK government and a large block of it's supporters.
Have a little look, Nicola, at the deal Greece has just had to sign if they wanted to stay in the Euro. Does it really look to you like the strategy of trying to get a better deal out of Germany by being nasty to them was a big success?
Now it may be that the SNP, unlike Syriza, don't want a deal at all. Maybe they would like nothing better than a deadlock and an exchange of insults and plan to use this to justify calling a second referendum on Independence, and think stirring up bad blood between England and Scotland will help them to win at the second attempt.
If that is their strategy the SNP are taking considerable risks with the wellbeing of Scotland. Banking up anger and hostility rarely bodes well for the future of any country. Didn't stop the SNP before, though, did it?
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