Dr Stuart Waiton, a sociologist and lecturer at Abertay University in Dundee, has blasted the SNP’s campaign for a second Scottish Independence referendum, arguing Nicola Sturgeon’s party would be “terrified if Scotland actually became independent.” He suggested that the SNP hold no “genuine sense of independence” when asked to comment on Ms Sturgeon’s latest indyref2 push.
Dr Waiton told GB News: “I think it’s worth making the point about the SNP that they’re not really independence party in any real sense.
“I think they might have a lot of cosmopolitan nationalism, and I suspect they’d like to replace the Scottish flag with the rainbow trans flag, but in any real sense of independence, they don’t really believe in it themselves, I suspect, and I think there would be terrified if they actually became independent.
“You can see that simply by the nature of the fact that they would want to join the EU straight away.
“They don’t really have a genuine sense of independence and autonomy.
“Historically as well, I think, may have changed it recently wanted to maintain the Queen and the pound, I think they’ve sort of backed off from that.
“But I mean, they really are the least independent independence movement in the history of independence movements.
“Even in terms of when you look at their policies, I mean, what they basically do is they use the public as a stage army, so they shout Scotland and boo Westminster when an election comes and then once that’s gone, they introduced all these nanny laws, right behind the backs of the public.
“They never stand an election saying we’re going to increase the price of alcohol or make it a hate crime to speak unpleasant words in your own home or all these other bodies.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland on Monday ruled out any deal with the SNP after the next British election, dismissing the idea that such a pact could lead to a new independence referendum.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said while it suited both the Conservatives and the SNP to talk up the prospect of such a deal to damage Labour, the party would form a minority government if it fell short of a parliamentary majority.
“Regardless of the outcome of the next UK General Election, Labour will do no deal with the SNP,” he said.
Mr Sarwar rejected Ms Sturgeon’s proposals for a new referendum, saying that instead of re-opening the wounds of a divisive independence campaign, a new constitutional settlement could be reached by reforming Britain’s institutions.
