IF Scotland had voted to become independent in 2014, Nicola Sturgeon would not have risen to prominence in politics, a journalist has claimed.
Speaking on the News Agents podcast, journalist Emily Maitlis also suggested that an independent Scotland would have “saved the breakup of the EU” and led to Alex Salmond being remembered as “the man who liberated Scotland”.
Maitlis (below) argued that if had Scotland voted Yes in the 2014 referendum, Salmond would have become the “de facto prime minister” for the country, meaning there would have been no “Nicola Sturgeon succession”.
She said: “The other point is, if you’re north of the border [if Scotland went independent] then Alex Salmond becomes your de facto prime minister, so there is probably no Nicola Sturgeon succession of the kind that we’ve had.”
'Indy means no Brexit'
Maitlis went on to suggest that if Scotland had become independent, Brexit would never have happened.
She said: “I’m going to say that if Scotland had voted Yes, it might very well have saved the breakup of another union – the EU.
“Because there was a moment at which David Cameron had won the AV referendum, and he’d won the Scotland referendum, and he then went on to think, ‘I can roll the dice three times’.
“If Cameron had lost Scotland, would he have been much, much more scared about taking another referendum on? I mean, you can’t lose one referendum and then think the next one’s going to be fine.”
The “alternative vote” (AV) referendum took place in 2011 and proposed changing the Westminster First Past The Post (FPTP) system to an AV, which would mean a constituency gets an MP supported by the majority of its voters, reducing the need for tactical voting.
The proposed changes were rejected decisively, by 68% No to 32% Yes on a 42% turnout.
It paved the way for other major changes to be decided by referendum, such as the 2014 indyref and the Brexit referendum in 2016.
