The Scottish National Party’s record in government in Scotland is a litany of failures. Yet the SNP continues to ride high on the back of nationalist sentiment, and it seems virtually unassailable.
With elections to the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood—a powerful body that now handles virtually all Scottish affairs save the military and foreign policy, thanks to devolution from the U.K. government—upcoming early next year, the SNP will vigorously strive to keep all emphasis off its repeated scandals and poor record in government, and focus exclusively on separating Scotland from the United Kingdom. That’s an appealing tactic for many Scots, given the state of the rest of the U.K.—but it’s one that, as events elsewhere show, is ultimately counterproductive. And it’s a sign of the focus on ideology, instead of competence, that is wrecking Western politics as a whole.
