I was struck by this portion of David Torrance’s latest article:

Nicola Sturgeon is fond of claiming that, during the first independence referendum, Scots were repeatedly assured by senior Unionists that the UK was a “partnership of equals” and therefore the fact Scotland voted Remain had to be recognised in the forthcoming negotiations. Now it’s a superficially compelling point, but in reality those campaigning for a No vote back in 2012-14 said no such thing. Sure, there was lots of talk about the UK being a “family of nations”, but that isn’t the same thing as arguing that Scotland and England (and indeed Wales and Northern Ireland) somehow occupy the family home on an equal basis. The only senior Unionist to use the phrase “partnership of equals” was the former prime minister Gordon Brown, but he was talking about his (unfulfilled) proposals for a quasi-federal UK rather than the status quo. In fact the two politicians who used that phrase most frequently were Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, usually to describe how they envisaged Anglo-Scottish relations post-independence, but subsequently the line has been attributed to their opponents, so successfully that many of my Unionist chums genuinely believe that David Cameron, Nick Clegg, et al described the UK in those terms.

Really, Mr Torrance? Nobody campaigning for a No vote in 2012-14 said anything like that? Nobody at all? Nobody advocating a No vote in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum campaign used language that could conceivably be construed as suggesting the UK was an equal partnership – not a possibility, not a dream, but the actual state of affairs?

The overwhelming majority of Scots believe in the UK and want to remain part of this 300 year long equal partnership.

– Ruth Davidson, 5th November 2011 There is more that brings us together than tears us apart. A future in which Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England continue to flourish side-by-side as equal partners.

– Theresa May, Scottish Conservative Party Conference, 24th March 2012 Today we are equal partners in the United Kingdom.

– Alistair Darling, John P. Mackintosh Lecture, 9th November 2012 The UK is a union of belonging and sharing. It is a union of equals and partnership: not a contractual union or marriage of convenience.

– Johann Lamont, 22nd March 2014

If a backbench opposition MP is a “senior Unionist,” then what does that make the UK Government’s party leader in the Scottish Parliament, the then-Home Secretary (and current Prime Minister) of the United Kingdom, the leader of the official No campaign, and the then-leader of the then-second largest party in the Scottish Parliament?

Actually, it wasn’t just party leaders, campaign leaders, and Prime Ministers against independence who’ve said similar things over the years:

That’s an awful lot of pro-UK Members of Parliament, Secretaries of State, Lords, and Prime Ministers referring to the United Kingdom as a “partnership of equals,” or the four nations as “equal partners.” Hopefully Mr Torrance will see fit to correct his article.

EDIT: Mr Torrance was kind enough to acknowledge this post on Twitter:

First Andrew Marr, now David Torrance? Scottish politics really is topsy turvy!

EDIT 2: My first post on indyref2.scot has just been published. It’s a further commentary on Mr Torrance’s article: it’s a wee bit more opinionated than this piece, but I figure he’s robust enough for different strokes.