SNP’s dithering ..and delusions

FOR the first time since Nicola Sturgeon took over as leader, there is a palpable sense of crisis engulfing the SNP.

The loss of 21 MPs in the election was a disaster for a party who had an air of invincibility a few short months ago.

But it’s the hesitant, almost delusional way the leadership have responded to the shock result that has really exposed their failings.

The voters could not have been clearer: they are fed up with talk of another independence referendum and want the party to focus their energies elsewhere.

Yet Sturgeon has frequently appeared deaf to this message, as she did again yesterday when pledging to consult widely within the SNP about what to do next.

Rather than the magnanimous gesture she apparently believed that to be, it was another sign that the First Minister is losing the ability to govern for all.

When it comes to the timing of another referendum, she should be listening to ordinary voters. And today’s Daily Record poll suggests she won’t like what they tell her.

It reveals that 60 per cent of Scots want her to dump her demand for IndyRef2, with even one in three Yes voters now opposed.

And more than a third of all voters are so cheesed off they want Sturgeon to resign.

The findings provide conclusive proof that her decision to push so aggressively for a second referendum was a mistake.

It’s made independence look further off than at any time in a decade, and frustration at SNP failures in government is mounting.

The SNP exist for one reason only. The idea that they are suddenly going to stop fighting for independence is nonsense.

But in recent years, they have persuaded the public they would do a decent job of running Scotland while pursuing that goal.

At present, they seem capable of doing neither.