AS a democrat, I found it more than a little gut-wrenching yesterday watching Scotland’s future in Europe being debated in the unelected House of Lords. “An unelected panoply of panjandrums and pampered popinjays” as one speaker put it. Unfortunately, if hard Brexit is to be avoided – the dangers of which have now been confirmed by the Government’s own leaked impact assessment – and if the Scottish Parliament is to retain its present powers, then we must hope that this ermined anachronism manages to do its job of revising the EU Withdrawal Bill. Like it or not, the real battle of Brexit is taking place in the Upper House.

As the Former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Lord Steel, said in yesterday’s debate, it is simply unacceptable that Scotland’s governing party, the SNP, will not be represented in this legislative process. It will not be able to argue the very cogent case that the First Minister has made about keeping Scotland in the single market. Indeed, the DExEU impact assessment leaked to Buzzfeed could have come straight from Nicola Sturgeon’s office. In short, it looks at all the alternatives to the single market – WTO rules, Norway/EEA and Canada – and notes that in all cases British growth would be worse than it is now. This is hardly surprising, since Britain is leaving the wealthiest and most comprehensive free trade area in the world, the EU.

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The UK Government insists that this is all defeatist talk and that we will negotiate a “bespoke deal” which will include all the benefits of the EU single market, but will allow Britain freedom to ignore its rules whenever we wish. That argument was tested to destruction in the Lords yesterday, as numerous senior political figures questioned what this bespoke deal would look like. The answer, as the former Tory Brexit minister, Lord Bridges said in a devastating speech, is that there isn’t one, only “waffle”.

Michel Barnier has made clear that the trade talks that recommence in Brussels this week will only offer Britain a Canada free trade area or something like Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area – that is if Nordic countries agree. The Canada Free Trade Agreement, Ceta, took seven years to negotiate and doesn’t include services, which is 80 per cent of the UK economy. Norway is in the single market, pays into the EU budget, accepts free movement of people but has no say over the rules because it isn’t represented in the EU. Neither of these, as the Government’s own impact assessment makes clear, is an attractive option. As Lord Bridges, said Britain is “walking a gangplank into thin air”.

And Scotland is walking the plank despite having voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. Particularly galling for the SNP was hearing its Labour bete noir, Lord George Foulkes, speaking in yesterday’s debate – as he puts it – on behalf of Nationalists. Lord Steel, has also promised to put the case for Scotland by tabling amendments and arguing the case for Scots law. These generous gestures may not be quite what they appear.

Lord Foulkes will insist that case for the single market is identical to the case for Scotland remaining in the Union. Nor is Lord Steel going to put the case for an independent Scotland remaining in the single market, or indeed for Scotland to remain in a unique relationship to the single market. Elegantly, and with protestations to the contrary, they will rip apart the SNP’s entire independence policy, exploiting to the full the fact that the nationalists are not present to defend it.

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This isn’t just a question of trade either. The EU Withdrawal Bill makes fundamental changes to devolution and the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster. Clause 11, as Lord Steel told their Lordships, wrecks the founding principle of the Scotland Act, that those powers not specifically reserved to Westminster are devolved to Holyrood. It was the late former Labour Scottish Secretary, Donald Dewar, working in concert with the then leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond, who managed to get this principle enshrined in the 1998 Act. It is now being up-ended.

Clause 11 places all the powers repatriated from Brussels into the hands of Number Ten, which as Lord Steel pointed out, echoing the House of Lords own constitution committee report, will be able to use its “Henry VIII” powers to decide, by decree, what powers stay at Westminster and what are devolved. We are talking about a whole range of responsibilities, and not just agriculture and the environment.

Yet, the Scottish National Party which forms the very government of the Scottish Parliament will have no say here on its own powers. Lord Foulkes will no doubt add that this is a perfect metaphor for independence itself, after which Scotland would have no say on all those matters decided in Westminster that affect Scotland. Yesterday he promised to table an amendment making it ”mandatory” for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments to give legislative consent before the EU Withdrawal Bill can become law. Good for him. But the quid pro quo will be that this strengthens devolution and makes independence an irrelevance. I’m not endorsing his view, merely stating the obvious argument.

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Of course, the House of Lords cannot ultimately reject bills from the House of Commons, but it can amend them. The nature of those amendments will be crucial to Scotland’s future wellbeing. It’s no accident that the UK Government somehow failed to deliver promised amendments to Clause 11 while the Withdrawal Bill was still in the Commons. It knows that in the Lords, the SNP will not be around to move its own amendments or seek to influence others.

It’s a lock-out – albeit a voluntary one. The SNP’s principled stand on boycotting the Lords is in many ways admirable. Supporters say that the presence of some 50 SNP peers wouldn’t make any difference, and perhaps they are right. Nevertheless, it is going to be a very uncomfortable few weeks for the SNP as the future of Scotland is decided in Another Place, and Scotland’s majority party is left seething on the sidelines.