how the SNP is against wind turbines

THERE is no problem in Scottish society that the SNP will not attempt to place at least some of the blame on ‘Westminster’. But blame game redux will not solve the illegal drug trade or drug deaths in Scotland.

The determined nationalist must persevere against the endless obstacles thrown against him by the treacherous forces of unionism. Only independence can free Scotland to deal with the urgent social and economic crises that afflict the oppressed peoples of Northern Britain.

The Scottish Government’s fixation on holding ‘Westminster’ to account on issues that, frankly, are not within its remit is certainly misanthropic. But this is nationalism we are talking about, it should come as no surprise.

Critics of the SNP’s new support for decriminalisation to tackle drug deaths allege cynicism. They accuse the Scottish Government of simply trying to redefine the lens after 17 years of failure. Shifting the conversation from 17 years of failed SNP policy to perfidious ‘Westminster’ inflexibility. It’s hard to disagree with the critics, it sounds like something this government would try.

But if we are honest, the Venn diagram of those criticising the SNP’s failed policy on drug deaths and those showing empathy for victims of addiction are clearly not perfectly aligned circles.

Let’s face it: political cynicism is everywhere in decentralized politics.

But the SNP’s campaign for ‘independence’ as a solution to drug deaths and the illegal drug trade is like shaking hands, because it feels more like washing hands.

Nationalists may present the divide as analogous to Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, but voters should be careful. For every bright spot has its dark side.

In the case of the Israelites, they had to wander in the desert for forty years before they reached the so-called ‘promised land’. Despite the harsh conditions, God miraculously provided the Israelites with ‘bread from heaven’ called ‘manna’.

When it comes to tackling drug deaths and eradicating the illegal drug trade, independence is not a manna from heaven. Instead, it is a leap into the unknown. A campaign slogan that should be accompanied by a Benny Hill laugh track.

Deaths by drugs

When the number of drug deaths in Scotland in September 2022 was almost three times the UK average, the SNP was quick to criticise Westminster for blocking safe consumption spaces.

It’s an outdated tactic as failed policies have increasingly led to a growing epidemic of drug deaths in Scotland.

In 2017, for example, the Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership asked the then Lord Advocate for a guarantee that those involved in the establishment or use of these services would be protected from prosecution.

The Lord Advocate of the day (there have been a few) ruled that what was being sought was too broad and beyond the office’s powers. This decline served as the basis for the SNP’s political ‘get out of jail’ card. As the death toll mounted and the illegal drug trade continued unabated, nationalists were able to switch to their ‘blame-game redux’.

If only Scottish Government ministers had the power to guarantee safe consumption spaces… if only the treacherous ‘Westminster’ (nationalist code for ‘England’) didn’t block progress.

Fortunately, the new Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain has put an end to this routine of political cynicism. Last year, a new, narrower request was made and guess what? She gave the answer the SNP had not received for years. An answer that removed the supposed ‘Westminster’ roadblock.

According to the Lord Advocate, while it is true that Westminster has a say in drug law, the issue of establishing rules for prosecutions is different. Ms Bain explained that if it was decided that it was not in the public interest to prosecute drug users for possession in a consumption room, then, presto! The Lord Advocate even helpfully explained that she would be more than happy to publish a policy if the SNP government demanded it.

Then Scottish Secretary Alister Jack later confirmed that “the UK government will not intervene” to prevent the creation of a safer consumption space.

Apparently the obstacle to the Scottish Government’s plans was not so much ‘Westminster’ but rather an incompetent administration that had not bothered to ask the Lord Advocate for appropriate guidance.

The nationalists could certainly have continued their Portugal-style decriminalisation plan since 2021, when Lord Advocate Bain took office. Or, potentially, whenever they wanted in their 17 years in power.

Illegal drug trafficking

Yet the SNP’s attempts to distance itself from the scandalous scale of drug deaths are nothing compared to their efforts to tackle the illegal drug trade.

In 2022, the then Minister for Justice and Veterans, Keith Brown, published his ‘Serious Organised Crime strategy (SOCS)’. The SOCS promised a new steering group, which would analyse available intelligence and make recommendations to the Serious Organised Crime (SOC) Taskforce.

The SOCS looked – and still looks – like a serious and welcome piece of work. And one that is long overdue, given that the outsized role played by serious organised crime is not new compared to the illegal drugs trade that plagues Scotland.

Years ago, in its 2011 publication on organised crime in Scotland and the criminal justice system’s response to it, the University of Stirling extensively linked the illegal drug trade to human and economic costs:

“The total economic and social costs of illicit drug use in Scotland are estimated at just under £3.5 billion. Costs associated with problem drug use account for 96% of the total, equating to just under £61,000 per problem drug user.”

That was then, and it is sad that the problem remained unchanged for another thirteen years under the SNP.

From March 2024“Drug trafficking remains the largest criminal market in Scotland, with the majority of SOCGs (serious organised crime gangs) involved in drug crime.”

When Keith Brown unveiled the Scottish Government’s SOCS in 2022, it looked for a moment as if the nationalists, who had been in power since 2007, were finally getting serious. That was until March 2023, when the new First Minister, the hapless Humza, gave Keith Brown his marching orders to replace him with Angela Constance. Unfortunately, Mrs Constance looks a lot like the eponymous hero of Don Quixote.

With drug trafficking “remaining the largest criminal market in Scotland”, it will take more than our Quixotic Doña Constance’s attacks on windmills to save the day.

Reading Angela Constance’s Ministerial Foreword to the National Mission on Drug Deaths, you would be forgiven for not knowing that SOCS even existed. Ms Constance says nothing about the role that tackling serious organised crime should play in relation to the national mission to tackle drug deaths.

In 2023, Ms Constance visited the Serious Organised Crime Campus as if she were a foreign dignitary. When we talk about how “pleased” she was “with the new guidelines that have been published”, you would be forgiven if you didn’t realise she is the Minister of Justice. Instead, she acted as if she were on a ministerial day, waxing lyrical with excitement about “the opportunity to become chairman of the Taskforce Serious Organized Crime”.

Our Minister of Justice spoke more as a commentator than as the responsible minister of the cabinet. In this way, Mrs. Constance hoped that no one would realize that it is actually her own party, and now she, that uniquely fails to withstand the test of criticism. It was as if Doña Quixote suddenly claimed that she had never fought against windmills.

When the eponymous hero Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza “came into view of thirty or forty windmills rising out of that plain”the so-called knights gather and shout “Fortune directs our affairs better than we could have wished. Do you see over there, friend Sancho, thirty or forty enormous giants?”

As Don Quixote prepared to do battle with his imaginary giants, little Sancho wondered “Which giants?”because all he saw were windmills.

Fighting windmills, that is, attacking imaginary enemies, is all the SNP has left in its arsenal.

The SNP government of 17 years is behaving truly quixotically.

The party has used its time (and your money) to routinely tackle issues that reflect its own arrogance and power rather than any desire to take on the real giants undermining modern-day Scotland.

Independence is the manna from heaven that will solve our drug deaths and illegal drug trade. Except it probably wouldn’t, since the same group with the same attitudes would be in charge. Dorothy Bain decided that whether it’s the right policy or the wrong policy, we can solve our problems now with the current delegated powers.

That’s the thing about attacking political windmills… you often end up attacking them alone, as the SNP seems determined to discover.

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AI image generated byand Manuel Milan from Adobe Stock