The Ulsterisation of Scottish Politics

In the hunkering down of Unionist and Nationalist tribes? No, actually. Scottish Nationalism is a busted flush, and never did have all that much support. After today, Scotland is like Northern Ireland in that it has four main parties, which pretend to oppose and even despise each other, but which in fact are all in government all the time, so that none of them is asking any questions. Of those, two really matter, they are always the same two, and their appeal is based on pretending to stand for things for which they simply no longer do. Again, just as in the Northern Ireland.

This bears no resemblance to wanting a dozen or so parties to contest elections and the half-dozen or so who do best all able to protect the interests of their voters. It bears no resemblance to wanting a situation in which in practice the powers in the land always include a High Tory party, an Old Labour Left party, an Old Liberal party (indeed, quite possibly the old Liberal Party, which still exists), a party of economically and socially libertarian foreign policy hawks (about which last aspect they would mercifully never be able to do anything), and an economically social-democratic party of morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriots.

Whether in Scotland or in Northern Ireland, is there an alternative? There is if you want it.