The Gang of Three

So, the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are banding together to deny the people of Scotland a referendum on the future of Scotland and are generally all over the place. The joint letter signed by their respective Scottish leaders, published in advance of the Independence white paper (Choosing Scotland's Future) must have been music to Alex Salmond's ears. For years the Labour Party have tried to depict and smear the SNP as being "the tartan tories" and yet it is Labour standing shoulder to shoulder with them on the issue of the Union. Yet another Labour lie nailed once and for all.

The idea of these three British nationalist parties standing together, setting their collective faces against Scottish public opinion and denying the people of Scotland a democratic choice is even scorned by some within their own parties. Michael Forsyth, who was the Tory pre-devolution Secretary of State for Scotland said on Newsnight that the unionist parties looked "frit" (a favourite phrase of Margaret Thatcher's, usually used to denote fear or cowardice) to ask the Scottish people to decide the constitutional issue. Mr Forsyth is no convert to Independence but at least he is trying to be democratic and believes the choice rests with the people.

Can denying the people of Scotland a referendum be a sustainable position? The more they push against the idea and try to deny the democratic rights of the Scottish people the more they will be hurt at the ballot box and the more the idea will grow and flourish. An opinion poll put support for an independence referendum at 80%. That isn't to suggest that all those people want independence but they want to have their say at the ballot box and are willing to engage in a national conversation on the issue. The longer the Unionist parties delay the referendum, the more harm they will do to their chances of winning it.