Humza Yousaf's Scottish independence plan is nonsense. So why is he pursuing it? – Scotsman comment

Scotland will never become an independent country if the majority of the people who live here oppose the idea

The news that Humza Yousaf is “quite keen” to consider amendments to his plan to achieve Scottish independence even if it’s opposed by a majority of voters is welcome. However, it’s probably unlikely that the First Minister will accept The Scotsman’s suggested amendment: scrap this anti-democratic nonsense immediately.

His proposal, to be debated at the SNP conference next month, is that the Scottish Government would be “empowered to begin immediate negotiations with the UK Government to give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country” if the party wins the most seats at the next Westminster election. It’s possible this could be achieved on less than 40 per cent of the votes.

The flaws in this ridiculous idea should be obvious to Yousaf. Creating a new nation when most people who live within its borders do not want this to happen is never going to work, it's never going to happen. Does he expect opponents to sit idly by en masse while they are dragged out of the UK against their will?

Furthermore, to ensure a solid foundation for the putative state, nationalists should be aspiring to build support for independence to 60 per cent or more. In the US, amending its constitution requires a two-thirds ‘supermajority’ of votes in Congress, because doing so means changing the ground rules of democracy. There is no bigger constitutional change possible than the creation of a new country, so this should require more than a simple 50 per cent plus one majority – certainly not a minority.

And if the UK Government is refusing to grant its permission for a referendum, what makes Yousaf suppose ministers would ever say yes to his demand for negotiations? It would be rejected out of hand, if they actually deemed the request worthy of a reply.

Yousaf is not a fool. He presumably must know all this. If that is true, then it begs the question, why is he choosing to go down this road? We will allow readers to draw their own conclusions about the motivation of a leader whose party’s grip on power looks increasingly tenuous…