Does Nicola Sturgeon really want to fly the EU flag?

The news that Nicola Sturgeon has asked for the EU flag to be flown every day from the Scottish Parliament building won’t come as a surprise to those familiar with her much-documented Europhilia. Indeed, when Britain was edging ahead in the vaccine race, she threatened to publish confidential information about the UK’s vaccine supply in order to offer support to Brussels, potentially undermining our vaccine deals. The fact that she was prepared to do this in order to cosy up to the EU tells you everything you need to know about the SNP’s particular brand of nationalism.

What’s most bizarre about Sturgeon’s focus on the EU is that she lives and breathes Scottish independence. Why, if it matters so much to her, would she want to take Scotland straight into a centrist bloc whose expressed aim is an ‘ever closer union’? It doesn’t appear to make much sense, but then again, neither does flying the EU flag in a country that is no longer part of the EU.

After the referendum, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament confirmed that the EU flag would be taken down and flown only on Europe Day ‘as a mark of our continued ties with that body’. But the SNP would not let the matter rest and brought forward a vote on whether the flag should continue to fly. The Union Jack flag, in comparison, will only be flown once a year on Remembrance Day. Sturgeon has now updated the guidance for the Scottish parliament building to specify that the EU flag should be flown every day.

It wasn’t so long ago that Sturgeon was keen to go cap-in-hand to the EU to float the idea that an independent Scotland would be permitted to join the Euro. Never mind that it firmly rebuffed her suggestion that Scotland might join the Euro if it voted for independence. She didn’t seem to learn the lesson that Eurocrats wary of encouraging separatist movements don’t exactly make the best bedfellows. If anything, like a good old amour déchu, it only seems to have strengthened her feelings on the matter.

But the timing of the move does seem off-key. The UK is in the middle of a world-leading vaccination programme which will prevent the deaths of thousands of Scots and enable the SNP to take Scotland out of lockdown, if it so chooses. If Nicola Sturgeon is so keen on Europe, perhaps it’s time for her to pull out of the British vaccine programme and join the European one – what better way to demonstrate to Scots where her true allegiance lies?

Throughout the vaccine roll-out Sturgeon has been keen to stress that Scotland is not being done a ‘favour’ by Westminster but is an equal player in the pandemic strategy. Responding to the Scottish Secretary of State’s offer of help from the armed forces, Nicola Sturgeon suddenly sounded like an ardent unionist: ‘It is our armed forces that the people of Scotland pay for through their taxes. We will continue to draw on the help of the armed forces.’ So it’s unionism when it suits and separatism the rest of the time.

Many would argue it’s high time she acknowledged the positive role that the Union has had in this crisis. After months of petty politicking on Covid rules, it’s no doubt galling for Sturgeon to watch the vaccine programme bringing the Union together. By building vaccine factories in both Scotland and Wales and enlisting the army with the roll out, Downing Street is playing a masterful hand in underlining the perks of the Union ahead of the planned Scottish election later in the year. Whilst it probably won’t be enough to prevent a resounding SNP victory, it does expose Sturgeon’s flag waving for what it is – petty and parochial at a time when Scotland, and indeed the Union, deserves more.