In an extraordinary interview yesterday, Wes Streeting MP, the UK health secretary in the Labour government, told Lewis Goodall on LBC that there was absolutely no way in which Labour would permit another referendum in Scotland on independence, however big the majority of MSPs elected to the Holyrood Parliament who supported the call for this to happen might be.
As far as I can see, the interview is only available on Twitter:
The significance cannot be avoided.
Streeting's claim was that the UK cannot afford the chaos that a Scottish referendum campaign might create. His suggestion was that after the global financial crisis, Brexit and Covid, the idea of Scottish Independence was unaffordable, whatever the people of Scotland might desire.
Labour is, of course, performing very badly in Scottish opinion polls at present and is expected to come third in the Holyrood elections next month, when only two years ago it was thought they had a prospect of winning. Now, the expectation is that they will be marginally beaten by Reform, with both trailing massively behind the SNP, who are expected to get a majority, with the Scottish Greens adding to the largest pro-Independence block likely to have ever been seen inside this parliament since it was created.
So, let me be clear about what is really going on here. Streeting is going full-blown Orban in his approach, adopting the style of authoritarian contempt towards democracy and the will of the people of the country previously associated with the now departed neofascist Hungarian Prime Minister.
It is impossible to describe the language that Streeting used as anything but contemptuous of Scotland. The attitude he revealed was deeply colonial, and his responses made clear that he has no regard for whatever Scotland may desire.
Streeting needs to be a little more considered. The greater the contempt that is shown, the more the anger in Scotland at colonial neoliberal role from Westminster will be, and the greater will be the desire to depart. If Streeting is unable to work that out, he places himself in the same league as Donald Trump when it comes to strategic thinking, but there again, that might be true.
What he also revealed, as Trump did yesterday, is that Labour is out of ideas when it comes to excuses for denying Scotland what it wants. Saying that Scotland may not be independent because England cannot afford chaos on the scale of the global financial Crisis, Brexit, and Covid again is utterly absurd, is an excuse obviously without foundation, because an orderly separation would create no chaos at all. Perhaps, then, what Streeting really revealed was that Labour would fight a rear-guard action against Scottish Independence even if it won support in a referendum. In the process, what Streeting made clear is how far down the path from democracy Labour has travelled.
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Spot on. I’m a Scot who has been sympathetic to Labour in the past, on the fence on independence, and I was horrified by Streeting’s words. And my response was already that it felt like an imperious colonial attitude. As with thatcher’s Tories it feels like being stamped into line under a neoliberal agenda.
Putin: Zdravstvuyte Wes, do you apply the same logic to Ukraine ?
Labour being the new Conservative Party is only confirmed by this amazing response by Streeting. They deserve everything that comes to them for denying, without equivocation, any opportunity to vote on this. They will only hasten the thing that Labour resists. It’s only a matter of when, not if.
The natural instincts of the Starmer Labour Party and the Starmer government are authoritarian.
Also, as we are frequently told, Scotland is a basket case economy propped up by England, so they would be better off without us.
The interview is available if you look at the programme on catch up on the LBC app. I listened to it but it was pretty much standard Streeting, who really has no clue about anything including the NHS and health! How he ever got to where he is I don’t know as he has very little talent other than a very inflated view of himself.
In reality once Labour has been decimated in the local elections, including much of London, he will start to view things differently. The Greens are pro devolution and decentralisation and his own seat is extremely vulnerable.
I have Welsh and Scottish heritage and remember my mum talking of how Welsh was banning schools when she was a child (her parents were Welsh speaking). It’s always English people talking about our union and not seeing it as a form of colonial power. I actually think the reunification of Ireland will come first. Brexit has accelerated the need and Protestants no longer dominate Northern Irish politics. But Scotland too has a very good case and it is not for English politicians to dismiss the Scottish people’s views. We do not have that right.
In fairness to Labour, it isn’t just Scotland. Wales have also been told, basically, that even if the Welsh elect Plaid, they shouldn’t even bother asking for a referendum because they’re not getting one either.
I do wonder if those in favour of staying in the union realise that it’s just as well that’s what they want because they aren’t being asked either…
Apologies for mentioning Streeting and the English NHS, but the same arrogant, we can’t afford it and it’s all your fault anyway has come out in the latest letter to the striking resident doctors.
If you don’t toe the line, you are out of a job, no training and replacement with physician associated up from 3,500 to 10,000 in five years. For anaesthesia associates up to 2000 in five years.
AI is the saviour but there are rumours of big negligence claims following reliance of medical AI.
Hopefully Labour gets hammered in Scotland. If Scotland wants out, declare UDI.
My loathing of ‘bought and sold’ weasel Streeting knows no bounds. All his puke-making performative stuff – whether its Scotland or the NHS is based on ‘there is no money for anything’ – and certainly not for doctors or a Scottish referendum. <p>
But as that premise is accepted – or indeed imposed – by any BBC presenter or interviewer , we are all going to remain trapped in the echoing ‘no money’ underground cave. We don’t need an Orban – the UK establishment is much more subtle <p>
Its all made for Samuel Beckett
Revealing but not surprising – I mean Starmer’s Labour know nothing about nation building at all in England let alone Scotland, if we’re honest.
So much for a union of equal partners. ‘We’re not giving them one.’ If anyone in Scotland still thinks Westminster cares about Scotland and its people, it’s time to wake up.
Welcome to Hotel California?
“We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave.”
I think that Scotland has only twice voted Tory in the last 110 years, It almost always voted Labour until 2005 and of course since then has voted SNP. Cleary Scotland has historically always known who the were the real enemy! Labour became complacent and in effect took the continuous, large and loyal vote for Labour for granted and rarely responded with progressive legislation either north of the border or anywhere else for that matter. Classic alienation, hence the collapse of Labour in Scotland a situation now being replicated in Wales and England! Its worth stressing that Wes Streeting is extremely unlikely to be an MP following the next election (like many of his colleagues) and one cannot take his views with any seriousness, he’s a yesterdays man. Scotland will have its day!
I congratulate feotus boy (TM – “The Thick of It”) – he has just given the SNP a few more seats & perhaps LINO a few less. Bravo mate, keep it up. It’s like Bed-bug (a “Vance” in German is “bed bug”) going to Hungary to “help” Orban – yeah that went well. I know, send Mandelson up there – oh er hang on a sec….. Is it summat about LINO? – they open their traps, put vocal organs into gear and swtich on the recording & out it comes. Sad? Pathetic? you chose.
I find Wes Streeting to be a most objectional little man with his destructive attitude to the NHS and his sponsorship by and promotion of Big Pharma and USA Health Insurance Inc.
It begs the question: Why does the Health Minister for England carry the sobriquet “Secretary of State”, sit in the UK Cabinet and draw the salary of SoS when Health is clearly defined as a matter devolved to Holyrood and the Senedd?
He should stick to the day job and leave matters relating to the constitution to those whose remit covers such things.
For whom does the “unaffordability of Scottish Independence” apply – Scotland or England? Might it be something to do with Scotland supplying a significant proportion of England’s energy free-of-charge? It’s been going on since the McCrone Report flagged up the fact that an independent Scotland would generate massive budgetary surpluses and a strong currency following the discovery of huge oil fields in Scottish waters. Now that they’re largely exhausted, the same saga continues with green energy – solar, wind and tidal – with all tax revenues going directly to the Treasury in Whitehall and a tiny proportion finding its way back to Scotland via Barnett Consequentials.
One thing is for sure: Streeting isn’t bright enough to realise that his statement will only bolster the pro-independence vote in the Holyrood Elections next month. Thank you Wes.
Much to agree with.
The inevitable acrimonious split will be far more costly than the ordered, well thought out and planned split the Scottish want and have proposed. When the UK left the EU the Brexiteers had no plans but a flimsy white paper. The Scottish had hundreds of pages of plans and proposals. When Scotland finally leaves the Union, expect Westminster to turn it into a sh**show.
Sorry for the double post, but it’s also important to remember a lot of the colonialism from Westminster over Scotland comes from the US. Scotland is part of the US North Sea enclosure of Russia. Not as important now, but still relevant. Westminster colonialism is often puppeteered by Washington. Of course, a sensible separation of Scotland from the Union need not impact our defense. We could easily have a combined military, but it would be less beholden to US interests due to th different attitudes of the Scottish towards the nuclear deterrent and projection of power.