The SNP put the economy at the very heart of its government’s strategy for a sustainable, successful Scotland and it is now the economy which is at the heart of a constitutional question which could rip apart the SNP’s dream of independence. A week is a long time in politics but as the last week has exposed, it’s a lot longer in the economy. Never mind that for too many years, stewarded by a New Labour fatal attraction to a free market, the economy had been allowed to go into overdrive, steered by overly enthusiastic and cash bloated financiers working within a myriad of investment packages so complex that they would have been hard pressed to untangle the messy web of toxic investments that they had got into. Who cared about the consequences of such recklessness while the good times rolled but now with that economic free for all come home to roost, who do we blame? Ironically, the man who was at the helm of all that profligacy is being hailed as a hero as he rushes around the world pulling us from the mess he plunged us into. Before economic meltdown, Brown was finished, along with the notion of the Union but now all bets are off. It is astonishing to reflect that a year ago, with the collapse of Northern Rock and the Prime Minister’s dithering, it had led to a questioning of his ability to lead. Even more shockingly, little more than a month ago, the fate of the PM appeared sealed – he had failed to govern, was facing mutiny in his own party and was destined to be ousted. His negative ratings in the polls, coupled with a negligible opposition in the Scottish Parliament, contributed to a sunnier outlook for the SNP’s quest for independence; the electorate may not have been convinced about a total decoupling but they were happy with the SNP minority government and were slowly being won round to the idea that Scotland’s future would be either on its own or with considerably more devolved powers. You don’t need to be a conspiracist to gaze in wonderment at the speed with which Brown’s fortunes and the security of the Union have been reversed. Given an imploding economy, the old iron Chancellor has come to the fore, appealing to the country’s insecurities for a steady experienced hand in unchartered waters. How fickle, how easily bought for the price of 190 times the GDP of Ethiopia, we are.
How fickle, how easily bought for the price of 190 times the GDP of Ethiopia, we are. 
The PM may look experienced but that is because he is treading familiar waters that he himself created. As the right-hand man to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown positively encouraged people to be mortgaged to the hilt, max out on credit and sate their hedonism with this and that and things that made them feel good. They had never had it so good because they had never been allowed to borrow so much before. Risk analysis on a personal and a corporate level appeared to be thrown out of the window with regulation and prudence in the name of free markets. But for the moment, Brown is seen as the economic saviour and the consequences of that must hurt Salmond hard. But the SNP is a cause that has withstood years of political indifference; a party that has suffered the slings and arrows of political opponents that have scoffed at its fundamental core belief in Scotland’s independence and it is a purpose prepared to wait. Let’s remember that it is only in the last 18 months that independence has become a notion that sensible people have been prepared to acknowledge as a possibility. Brown may be good in a crisis but then it’s maybe no coincidence that he has been involved in so many. It has been right during the last week or so for the SNP and other opposition parties to be supportive of the UK Government’s attempts to avert a financial crisis but the time will come for blame, and why not? The SNP won the Scottish parliamentary elections with the express aim of winning the hearts and minds of the Scottish people by showing it was a party that could command economic good times. Now is the time for the party to show what it is made of. The time will come for all politicians to deal with the realities of economic recession on their doorsteps. Already Scotland’s recent unemployment figures make for grim reading and with the prospect of redundancies, house repossessions and economic hardship, how much of a hero will Gordon Brown look then? Surely, he can only hope that the pain doesn’t get too acute before November 6 and that the SNP doesn’t remind the people of Glenrothes that this crisis happened not in an independent Scotland but within the structure of the United Kingdom.
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Holyrood magazine is the fortnightly insiders guide to understanding the complexity of Scottish politics and policy developments and is widely regarded as being the leading publication for political news and information in Scotland.
