England and Brexit have made a mug of Scots like me who voted ‘no’ to independence I’m not sure how I’ll vote in the event of a second independence referendum, writes Chris Deerin

Brexit is proving rather good at making fools of people. There’s poor Theresa May, who this week saw her cunning Chequers plan rejected by fellow EU leaders in Salzburg and who was then brazenly cheeked by Donald Tusk, who posted a picture on Instagram offering her “a piece of cake… sorry, no cherries”.

There are those self-described “moderate” Leavers who promised Brexit would open up the world to our entrepreneurial genius and usher in a new era of prosperity. Where did that happy prospect go? The post-EU Britain now on offer is either a drooling gimp twitching on the end of Brussels’ leash or some right-wing, racist dystopia with Tommy Robinson or, worse, Boris Johnson as prime minister. Great job, folks.

There are the hapless pro-EU Labour MPs whose hard-left Brexiter leadership deployed deliberate negligence to effectively sabotage Remain’s chances of success.

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And then there’s me. Not to get all country and western about it, but Brexit has surely made a mug out of me…

Voting ‘no’

Back in 2014 I moved home to Scotland after a decade in London, just in time for the independence referendum that was held four years ago this week. I was a committed “No” voter, but not for the reasons advanced by the dismal Better Together campaign.

Its strategists only wanted to talk about money, or how terrifyingly little of it a separate Scotland would have. Their message was arid, one-eyed and lacked any sense of the poetry that underwrites a nation.

“The Brexit debate has been a horrible wake-up call. Those moderate Brexiteers rode the tail of Nigel Farage’s racist tiger in pursuit of victory.”

I saw and argued for the value of Britain at a more elevated level: as a wise old bird whose presence at the top table of the major international institutions was something to be protected. The world was a better place for having the UK there to place a restraining hand on the American elbow, raise a warning eyebrow at Putin, try to puzzle out the opaque intentions of the rising Chinese.

I didn’t overstate our influence, but nor did I see how pulling the rug from under our country, crushing its moral authority and quickening its journey to the fringes of power, would help. I sought solidarity, not only with the rest of these islands, but on a global scale. It didn’t seem very Scottish to walk away from all that.

Splitters

We didn’t. And then two years later, in the Brexit referendum, we voted to stay European, too. In fact, the 62-38 result in favour of remaining in the EU dwarfed the 55-45 margin for remaining in the UK. But while we’re staying British, we’re leaving the European Union. Because England, the elephant on whose back the peripheral nations perch, said so.

“The UK has become the kind of country that is treated as an oddball annoyance by our former friends on the continent, rather than a partner.”

There’s a problem. An argument advanced by the pro-UK side in 2014 was that a vote for independence would mean Scotland leaving the EU. The UK was the member state and would retain that status; the splitter would have to apply to be readmitted. The Spanish, with an eye on their own Catalonian headache, were unlikely to view the application in a positive light.

And there’s another hole in my 2014 case. A Britain that willingly shoulders its international burdens, that understands that the 21st century’s complex challenges require sovereignty to be shared rather than hoarded like Smaug’s gold, whose values deservedly keep it in the front rank of nations, looks to have been not much more than a chimera.

Indecision

The Brexit debate has been a horrible wake-up call. Those moderate Brexiteers rode the tail of Nigel Farage’s racist tiger in pursuit of victory. The politicians and voters who share Farage’s unlovely worldview expect payback, reasonably enough.

The UK has become the kind of country that is treated as an oddball annoyance by our former friends on the continent, rather than a partner. We bustle after the unspeakable Donald Trump offering all sorts if he’ll just give us a trade deal. And this is only the beginning.

“Brexit is proving rather good at making fools of people.”

There won’t be a second Scottish independence referendum this decade. But there will almost certainly be one at some point in the 2020s. I’m not sure how I’ll vote then. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be writing tear-stained pro-Union columns about British values and our moral importance to the world. That country’s gone. Fool me once, and all that.

@chrisdeerin