Clutching at straws

Published on 15/07/2012 00:00

PERHAPS more than anyone else, the politically astute Alex Salmond knows that a fairly worded, clear-cut single Yes or No referendum will be lost, possibly in a humiliating fashion. This is now beyond dispute – the basic polling numbers have barely altered over many years.

And so we have the last straw to be clutched: the second question, the only possibility that may allow him to argue that the people are confused and muddled. That may gain him a few more years to live the life to which he has become accustomed.

If another constitutional change is deemed necessary it can be done at a later date – once the monkey has been removed from the back of politics in Scotland and a clear-cut Yes or No is given to the UK.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh