IN the future, political scientists will use this week to diagnose the multiple dysfunctions currently ailing Scotland.

Essentially, we live in a nation trapped in stasis; a country going nowhere, pickled in constitutional aspic. As long as this state of affairs continues, good governance is indefinitely sidelined. Deadlock has deadened us.

We began the week with the BBC reporting that senior Scottish NHS executives had discussed a two-tier system due to the dire state of the health service. The story was subjected to an intense campaign of lies and disinformation by an extremist contingent of online SNP supporters.

Journalists covering the story were called ‘unionist lackeys’, ‘bootlickers’, ‘scumbags’, ‘quislings’ and told they’d be ‘lucky to work post-independence’. The BBC even had to come out and defend itself for reporting the truth.

Online SNP supporters, in an act of wilful blindness, refused to make the distinction between the Scottish government saying it would never allow a two-tier system to develop, and NHS executives discussing that option due to mismanagement under the Sturgeon administration. Some even claimed it was a rehash of old stories - not understanding that when the NHS has been in crisis for such a long time, health service executives may find themselves revisiting fears.

It was a truly Trumpian moment in Scottish politics: online partisans actually refusing to accept that an event had happened. They’re still in denial today. 

This shameful episode was followed by the inevitable nixing of another referendum by the Supreme Court. Full disclosure: as most readers know, I support independence. But the court finding just underscored what most considered Yes voters know: Nicola Sturgeon’s constitutional strategy is a joke. It exists only to continually throw red meat to her base, and act as a constant shield protecting her government from any criticism over its failures on multiple fronts: the NHS, schools and policing.

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