I know, that sounds a bit harsh, but hear me out.
I’m sure the SNP response would be something along the lines of ‘to stand up for their constituents and the people of Scotland’.
That’s all well and good, but what about everyone else? If your reply is ‘what ABOUT everyone else?’ with the attitude that it’s perfectly ok for Scottish MPs to not give a fig about anyone who lives south of the border… there’s really no point you reading on.
In preparation for this (earlier than expected) General Election, I started looking at the voting record of our most recent MP, and from there started looking at the records of nearby SNP MPs. I found something I hadn’t actually realised about the SNP before – if they think an issue doesn’t directly affect people living in Scotland, they won’t vote on it.
Let’s take the hot-button topic of sewage discharges. The SNP government in Holyrood have their own struggles with this – just 4% of sewage overflows have reporting requirements, so it’s impossible to know exactly how much sewage is discharged into our Scottish waterways.
For England though, the picture is much clearer (well, in a brown and sludgy manner). In 2023, 16,706 storm overflows spilled sewage for a total of 4,608,318 hours. These includes spills into the Solway Firth, the River Tweed and the North Sea. (See www.theriverstrust.org for more information.)
Untreated sewage being discharged into our seas, rivers and even National Parks like the Lake District, that’s bad, right? I mean, surely no-one actually thinks it’s a good thing? So, requiring water companies (water and waste was privatised south of the border by Thatcher in 1989) to improve their sewage systems and reduce the harm caused by untreated sewage discharges… that should be a no-brainer. Water companies take billions from customers and give it to their shareholders. Bringing sewers and treatment up to a decent standard doesn’t seem like an unreasonable requirement. Well, in October 2021, the Conservative government said that it was unreasonable. 265 (all Conservative) voted against the requirements, 202 voted for, including all the Liberal Democrats. Every single SNP MP declined to show up and vote.
This isn’t an isolated incident. From votes on preventing the use of bee-killing pesticides, to meeting World Health Organisation guidelines for air quality, the SNP have taken the ‘principled’ stand of not voting.
The SNP became the third largest party at Westminster in 2019. They might not have wanted to be there, they might not want to be a part of the UK at all, but the role of the opposition parties is to effectively scrutinise and challenge the government of the day. If they’re not willing to do that fully, then I ask again, what is the point of the SNP at Westminster?