Indy bandwagon

The SNP are playing the people of Scotland for fools. I think Nicola Sturgeon always intended to ignore the idea that the referendum result should last for a generation.

After all, that could be 
beyond her period as leader. This Nationalist view of “democracy” simply treats the 2014 result as a delay in getting their way.

A year later the First Minister admits she will re-run the referendum when it suits her. A pretence is maintained that the people will decide by including a list of “triggers” that will be mentioned in their 2016 manifesto.

While she remains coy about the full list, her lieutenants Alex Salmond and Stewart Hosie regularly reel off examples to warm us up, including not enough new powers, too much austerity, a UK exit from the EU, and Trident renewal.

The First Minister herself added another, saying if Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party does not offer an effective opposition to the Tories, that could also lead to a second referendum.

Plenty of scope and subjective judgment in all that, certainly when a vague catch-all option is added, for the First Minister to choose her own timing.

What Scotland needs or wants does not matter to the Nationalists, because, as they so often imply, for them the SNP is Scotland. The independence bandwagon has been rolling since the SNP won a majority in 2011 and the First Minister intends to keep it going until they win a referendum or lose power. The proper government of Scotland is on hold until one of those of those two things happen.

Keith Howell

West Linton

Peeblesshire