Separatist tremors in Scotland

Election : The Scottish National Party's (SNP) unexpected victory at the Scottish parliamentary elections recently should defuse any euphoria for the British central government, deriving from the re-installation shortly of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and Catholic Sinn Fein dominated power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland.

Tough negotiations are on the cards for the formation of the next administration in Scotland among its key political players but the fact that the SNP defeated the Labour Party by a single seat (47 to 46) and emerged victor at the polls, should set the British polity thinking, on account of SNP's political platform of independence from the British Union.

"This is a historic moment. The Labour Party has no moral authority left to govern Scotland", SNP leader Alex Salmond was quoted saying in the wake of the electoral verdict which ended some 50 years of Labour dominance of Scottish politics and governance.

Clearly, the separatist sentiment has gained ground in Scotland and this is the stark message the recent electoral verdict delivers. With the SNP egging it on pro-independence sentiment could be expected to grow in Scotland, snowballing even into a militant campaign for an independent Scotland. The challenge facing the British centre is to defuse this growing pro-independence sentiment through, perhaps, a greater devolution of power.

It needs to be noted that Scotland, if ignored, by the centre, could turn out an even tougher nut to crack than Northern Ireland on account of its culturally and ethnically more homogeneous character than Northern Ireland.

The latter was a highly segmented polity - in cultural and religious terms - with the DUP strongly supporting continued integration within the British Union, and this prevented Sinn Fein from making much headway in its campaign to delink Northern Ireland from Britain and annex it to the Irish Republic.

In Scotland, however, the political situation differs sharply with a majority of Scots, who are culturally homogenous, now opting for a greater degree of autonomy, if not independence.

Much would depend on how well the centre handles law and order issues in the region. Ideally, a greater degree of control over law enforcement would need to be devolved on the Scottish Parliament to avoid a Northern Ireland-type situation. For, Scotland should on no account be given to understand that they are being ruled with a repressive hand. This would be grist to the SNP's mill.

While this amounts to looking into the future, any possible immediate tensions in Scotland arising from the SNP victory could be defused by the Labour Party trying to recoup its losses in the region.

Certainly, a distancing of Britain from the Bush administration on the Iraqi issue, could enable Labour to recover lost political ground in Scotland. A less hawkish stand on Iraq by the British centre could steady Labour's plummeting popularity in Scotland and enable it to take the fight back to the SNP.

All in all, the Labour Party would need to get back to its centrist policy platform if Britain is to defuse tensions of the kind which emanate from separatist politics, from different parts of the Union.

Unfortunately, the Blair government through its alliance with the Bush administration, has severely compromised this centrist legacy of Labour.