Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, is an MP with a rare ability to unite members of the House of Commons across all parties. “When he stands up,” says an MP, “everyone says oh no, not bloody Blackford.”
Former banker turned part-time crofter, Blackford appears in the Commons to be perennially furious. Scotland has always been done some terrible harm by “Borus” Johnson and the evil “Torees” .
The picture this presents of Scotland – scunnered, perpetually hungry for grievance, like a Church of Scotland minister in 1953 whose housekeeper has spilt Irn Bru on his copy of the Scotsman – is not a happy one. Can it be good for the Scottish tourist trade? If these performances continue it risks creating a suspicion that Blackford is working covertly for the English tourist board.
Yet, so unintentionally comical is the effect, that even his critics at Westminster are drawn, by some sort of sick fascination, to listen. His response to the Queen’s Speech did not disappoint connoisseurs of the Blackford oeuvre. It was, noted another MP, like listening to Blackford’s greatest hits.
The Prime Minister should hang his head in shame, said Blackford, for reasons that are too tedious to go into. Scotland has been treated shamefully, and so on, and so on.
When one Tory MP – Andrew Bowie – tried to wind up Blackford with some mild heckling, the SNP man was duly affronted, triggered in modern parlance.
Blackford scolded Bowie, saying: “I don’t think if the honourable member for West Aberdeenshire was back in school he would behave the way he was behaving in this house. He really ought to calm down.”
Bowie responded later. The new parliamentary session at Westminster was only three hours old, he pointed out, and already Blackford was extra furious.
“Ian Blackford’s ridiculously over the top reaction shows the SNP don’t like people pointing out the truth that the First Minister misled the people of Scotland when she said recovery was her only priority, not independence.”
Blackford said in the chamber the election result last week was a mandate for a referendum. He said: “It broke nearly every record in the book and it is a result that will continue to reverberate.
“That electoral earthquake now opens the democratic path that will shape Scotland’s future.”
In the “earthquake” election the SNP got one seat more – 64 up on 63 – compared to 2016 and fell short again of an overall majority.
