GETTY Nicola Sturgeon threatens our civil rights

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The fires of separatism are burning more fiercely than ever before. Last year the Scottish National Party won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in the general election while the cause of independence was defeated only by a narrow margin in the referendum. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, has a stronger popular mandate than any other British politician in history. Her party’s dominance of the Caledonian landscape will be reinforced this week in the Scottish Parliamentary elections as the latest opinion polls point to another landslide for the SNP. In effect Scotland is rapidly becoming a one party state.

Yet there is a bizarre double standard at the heart of the SNP. With epic hypocrisy the nationalists clamour for their own independence from London rule but at the same time they want to deny independence for Britain from the European Union. They demand freedom from Westminster while they embrace continued subjugation to Brussels.

GETTY Scottish political power in Westminster has grown with the success of the SNP

Indeed no political party in Britain is more fervently attached to Brussels than the SNP, which loves to spout all the empty clichés about cooperation and unity even as the Europe project descends into chaos. In the once heroic Scottish saga, the defiant figure of Braveheart has been replaced by the paper-shuffling cheerleader for Monsieur Juncker. NOW the tragedy is that the SNP’s supine, pro-EU approach is having an impact on the referendum campaign in Scotland. In England the Remainiacs, unable to make a positive case for Britain’s membership, are struggling despite the scaremongering support of the British establishment. But it is a very different story further north where the Remain camp is surging ahead. One opinion poll on Friday put Scottish support for Remain at 48 per cent, more than double the backing for Leave at 21 per cent. What is so disturbing is that this disparity between England and Scotland could decide the outcome of the referendum. The SNP campaigners always bang on about the case where a significant majority of the English vote to leave the EU, thereby ensuring a triumph for the Brexit campaign even if most Scots are in favour of Remain. Such a situation, claimed Sturgeon last week, would be “democratic outrage” because Scotland would be “taken out of the European Union against our will”. In such an event there would be “an overwhelming demand for a second referendum” on Scottish independence. But there is an alternative, which could be a much bigger outrage.

GETTY Opinion polls point to another SNP landslide in the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary elections

This scenario, which is all too likely, was highlighted by another recent opinion poll which showed support for Leave in England and Wales just ahead, at 43 per cent to 41 per cent. But this survey had Remain well in front in Scotland, at 51 per cent to 34 per cent. If those findings were translated into the actual result at the referendum then the Remain vote would win by just one per cent. Such a result would represent an utter farce of democracy and a profound affront to the peoples of England and Wales. Absurdly their will would have been subverted by a regiment of nationalist voters who despise the very existence of the UK. Over the years the English have grown used to being held to ransom by the Scots.

GETTY Britain will vote on whether to leave the EU on June 23

Unfairness and injustice have long characterised the relationship between the two countries. Contrary to all the cult of victimhood eagerly peddled by the SNP, it is England which gets the raw deal. Propped up by subsidies from the English taxpayer, public spending is £1,600 per head higher in Scotland than south of border, enabling the Edinburgh government to abolish student tuition fees, prescription charges, care home levies and road tolls. Just as glaring is the democratic deficit caused by devolution whereby English MPs have no say over domestic affairs in Scotland yet Scottish MPs have unrestricted influence at Westminster. But these affronts are far exceeded by the idea that the votes of the Scots could keep the English and Welsh in the EU against their wishes. In a bitterly ironic twist the Scots, so full of nationalist bluster, could deny the very self-determination they seek for themselves. Raging at the colonial yoke, they may well ensure that England stays a regional province in the EU empire. Well, the Scots can have the EU if they want.

The illiberal, self-righteous, authoritarianism of the Brussels bureaucracy matches the Nationalist mentality, with its worship of state power. Under the SNP, Scotland has become a land of puritan bans and politically correct officialdom, epitomised by the new law that every single child must have a state guardian.

EU referendum Sat, February 20, 2016 With an in/out referendum on EU membership set for June 23 this year, we're taking an overview look of David Cameron's two-day visit at EU summit at EU headquarters in Brussels and his return to Downing Street to meet with his cabinet. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 21 British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks at Downing Street