Believe in the Tartan Bin

The Scottish Nationalist movement descends into a parody of itself

Four summers ago, during the Conservative party leadership contest eventually won by Boris Johnson, Rory Stewart animated a so-called television debate by talking about his bins. Chez Stewart, this had become an irksome matter. Mrs Stewart contended that there could not possibly be space for three full bags of rubbish in the dustbin; fiddlesticks, her husband retorted: just watch me go. If you would only “believe in the bin”, all things might be achievable. Faith, space, and charity - but the greatest of these is faith.

Stewart was, of course, mocking his rivals’ belief that “believing in Brexit” would be enough to make Brexit the glorious success it was advertised as being. Willpower and faith can conquer everything and every setback, however inevitable, must be the dreary consequence of an absence of willpower and faith.

If this was a caricature of Brexit-thinking it was nonetheless one based on reality. There has been no shortage of magical thinking in these islands in recent years…