thank the snp for the thatcher years// alexande tb4e telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9903781/The-history-the-SNP-is-trying-to-forget.html Scottish voters will have to put up with a great many fictitious claims during the run up to the independence referendum next autumn but there can surely be none more outrageous than that peddled by the SNP yesterday. Theyre trying to gloss over the fact that it was them who put Margaret Thatcher into 10 Downing Street. March 1 was the anniversary of the 1979 referendum on the establishment of a devolved Scottish assembly – it wasnt called a parliament way back then and would have had nothing like the powers enjoyed by the present institution. Although there was a simple majority in favour of setting up such a body, the move failed because of an amendment moved by George Cunningham, a Scot representing a London seat, which stipulated that at least 40 per cent of the electorate had to approve the new establishment. And that was that – until 1999 and the setting up of the present Scottish Parliament. It is easy to understand the Nats annoyance at victory being snatched from their grasp 34 years ago but they really should stop telling such a bunch of outright whoppers about the consequences of that long-ago vote. In a press release yesterday the SNP claimed that instead of getting better government following that referendum, the people of Scotland were given 18 years of Tory rule. Related Articles SNP have secret plan, Lib Dems claim 17 Mar 2013 Bruce Crawford, the MSP for Stirling and until recently the partys business manager, took up the cry, saying: After the 1979 referendum, Scotland suffered 18 years of Tory rule we didnt vote for … The truth is the Scots werent given Tory rule by anyone other than the SNP and if they suffered 18 years of Tory rule, it was because the SNP DID vote with the Tories and actually brought on their long years in power. What Mr Crawford and his press officer choose to forget, or hope that no one will recall, is that it was the 11-strong SNP group in the Commons in 1979 that first tabled the no confidence motion in Jim Callaghans Labour government which led to its defeat in that memorable debate three weeks after the devolution referendum. Margaret Thatcher couldnt be sure of beating Callaghan until she saw that the Nats were on her side and once they had shown their hand, she then tabled her own no confidence motion, which, as leader of the main opposition party, took precedence over that of the SNP. She won by only one vote, with all the Nat MPs voting with her – turkeys voting for an early Christmas, said not-so Sunny Jim. In accusing the Unionist parties of peddling fictions about what an independent Scotland might look like it is a barefaced cheek that the SNP should maintain the biggest fiction of all – that they had nothing to do with the rise and rise of Margaret Thatcher. • Yesterday saw the commissioning into the Royal Navy of HMS Ambush, the billion-pound hunter killer nuclear-powered submarine which is so hi-tech as to make your eyes water just thinking of her capabilities. Michael Moore, the Scottish Secretary, welcomed her addition to the fleet and pointed out that like her sister boats – submarines are always boats, not ships – Ambush will be stationed at HM Naval Base Clyde, or Faslane to you and me. He said that the base was Scotlands largest single-site employer, with a combined workforce of over 6,700 people rising to 8,200 by 2022. The SNP insists that it will boot the Trident nuclear-missile submarines out of Faslane if it makes Scotland independent and Whitehall has said that if that happens then all of the other submarines – like Ambush – will be pulled out, too. In that event what will be left at the base? My friend Field Marshal Angus Robertson insists that Faslane will be retained as an independent Scotlands main naval base, but if it doesnt have any subs how can there be work for all those thousands? Unless of course he plans to build a fleet of his own. However, at a billion a time Angus had better get saving.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 08:29:42 +0000
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