An epidemic of faith

The particular stupidity prompted by this poll as so many in the past, is the pathologically naive notion that a “landslide victory for the SNP in the next [UK] General Election” and/or “a fifth term for the party in Holyrood” equates to progress towards independence regardless of how large the lead Yes has in whichever poll is currently being peddled by The National as the definitive word on the constitutional issue. If recent history teaches us anything at all it is the fact that electoral success for the SNP in no manner or measure signifies progress for the campaign to restore Scotland’s independence.

It is asking a lot of those afflicted by this extraordinary credulousness, but I would urge them to actually think back over the last ten to fifteen years and ask themselves how often or to what extent SNP election wins have been associated with a measurable move towards the goal of constitutional normality for this nation. If the stricken are able to be honest with themselves for a moment, they’ll recognise that the last notable SNP electoral success to have any positive implications for Scotland’s cause was the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. It took a freak event such as that to bring about even the unsatisfactory 2014 referendum.

It seems we must await something at least equally extraordinary as the 2011 Holyrood landslide before we dare hope that an SNP Scottish Government might behave again as we would expect a ‘party of independence’ to behave. Because with the benefit of hindsight, we can clearly see that repeated electoral success for the SNP has resulted in no benefit whatever for Scotland’s cause.

Those who have sacrificed reason to faith assure us that it will be different next time. As they always have. Each time, there are fewer of them. But each time the SNP wins and the promised progress doesn’t materialise, the faithful grow louder and more insistent in their dogmatic belief that next time will be different. And more vituperatively antagonistic towards anyone who presumes to point out the absence of any foundation for the belief that next time will be different.

So completely does this mindless faith in an SNP leadership that has serially failed to deliver overwhelm the intellect of the ‘true believer’ that it persists even when the leaders themselves state – albeit in language designed to deceive – that it is not their intention to pursue Scotland’s cause no matter how many people vote for them on the basis of a not-quite-a-promise to do so.

When Nicola Sturgeon was responsible for keeping Scotland’s cause parked in a relative’s driveway, she explicitly stated that the referendum she repeatedly promised to deliver would have absolutely no effect in terms of progress towards the restoration of Scotland’s independence. The faithful simply ignored that bit. The ‘new independence strategy’ approved by delegates at the last SNP conference is actually just the same as the one Sturgeon told us would have no effect. Which is precisely what we would expect from someone sold to members as the ‘continuity candidate’. SNP members were so lost to the folly of belief against evidence that they elected as leader someone who promised to continue the strategy that had failed so abysmally in the recent past.

Nothing has changed. As can be seen from the knee-jerk reaction by the faithful to a poll which, for all the hype, is just the latest in a series of polls stretching back to late 2014 which when taken as a whole, indicate only that support for independence has flatlined since then. This from comments in The National is typical –

So Labour’s Scottish comeback has slid back. The SNP will win the GE and independence. Bring it on!

This is the kind of naive complacency that will cost Scotland dearly. We are amidst an epidemic of faith. And there seems to be no cure.