sturgeon: indyRef2 on hold.. for now
First Minister ditches plan for independence vote by 2019 but insists that it could still happen before 2021 elections.
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday announced she was delaying her timetable for a new independence referendum.
The “reset” means the First Minister has ditched a 2019 deadline for the vote.
But she insisted Scots could still have a say on the nation’s future within the SNP’s term in office, which ends in 2021.
And instead of pulling back, party chiefs immediately rebranded and relaunched an online fundraising campaign to promote independence.
Furious unionists demanded that Sturgeon take the “threat” of IndyRef2 right off the table.
Sturgeon told Holyrood she will not push ahead with legislation to hold a referendum before the Brexit deal is signed.
But she added: “The Scottish Government remains committed – strongly – to the principle of giving Scotland a choice at the end of this process.
“I want to reassure people that our proposal is not for a referendum now or before there is sufficient clarity about the options, but rather to give them a choice at the end of the Brexit process, when that clarity has emerged.”
Prime Minister Theresa May had already ruled out permission for the Scottish Parliament to hold a vote on leaving the UK, saying “now is not the time”.
The SNP had to rethink their IndyRef2 plans after losing 21 of their 56 seats in this month’s general election.
They now hope to gamble on a weakened PM leading Britain into a disastrous Brexit deal.
Sturgeon said she will focus on protecting Scotland’s European interests.
She told MSPs: “We will seek to build maximum support around the proposals set out in the paper that we published in December – Scotland’s Place in Europe – to keep us in the single market, with substantial new powers for this Parliament.
“We will do everything we can to influence the UK in that direction.
“And then at the end of this period of negotiation with the EU – likely to be around next autumn – when the terms of Brexit will be clearer, we will come back to Parliament to set out our judgment on the best way forward at that time, including our view on the precise timescale for offering people a choice over the country’s future.”
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said Sturgeon refuses to accept IndyRef2 is “dead”.
Dugdale said: “She is digging her heels in, putting her fingers in her ears and pressing on regardless.
“The people of Scotland sent her a clear message at the general election – get on with the day job.
“She must get on with improving our schools, fixing our NHS and growing our economy.”
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the SNP’s online fundraising website, mobilise.scot, proves the party are trying to trick voters.
She added: “It is appalling hypocrisy and it is no wonder that so many people in Scotland deserted the SNP at the election.
“Nicola Sturgeon could have shown she had listened to people across Scotland. Instead, she has shown she is determined to press ahead with her referendum no matter what people say.”
Greens leader Patrick Harvie , who supported IndyRef2, said: “The people of Scotland face being denied the right to make their own choice until long after we leave the EU.”
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: “The First Minister has concluded that she should call another referendum at a time of her choosing. Absolutely nothing has changed.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: “Far from taking an independence referendum off the table, as the people of Scotland called on her to do during the election, she has merely pushed her preferred timescale back by six months.”
ORDERED to break off his attacks at the Battle of Copenhagen, Lord Nelson famously put his telescope to his blind eye and said: “I really do not see the signal.”
Nicola Sturgeon showed similar thrawn leadership yesterday.
The voters sent her the clearest signal at the general election. They want no truck with a second independence referendum while they are being tossed about in Brexit storms.
That message cost the SNP 21 seats and more than 470,000 votes.
But with a large minority of Scots wedded to the independence cause, the SNP leader’s response after some weeks of reflection was, as usual, clever and calculated.
Sturgeon said she would “reset” the referendum clock, a phrase so open to interpretation that it could mean the countdown starts the day after Brexit, the morning before, or maybe never.
The First Minister has devoted her political life to independence. No one could have expected her to steer off that course, even if it may take her perilously close to the reefs.
But in a personally difficult manoeuvre, she may have done enough to signal back to the voters that she agrees, albeit reluctantly, that now is not the time for a referendum. Not never, just not now. The majority of Scots (remember, they voted No) will take some convincing that this is a real change of direction and not mere political tacking until the weather improves.
But Sturgeon at least deserves credit for acknowledging that the greatest immediate challenge facing Scotland is Brexit, and getting a deal that works for us.
The UK Government should respond by showing they take Scotland’s Government seriously. Voices from all the devolved assemblies have to be properly heard.
The Joint Ministerial Committee have become discredited because the Tories have given them the tin ear. They need to be recast as a serious forum.
And instead of threatening to bung things up, the SNP should write a Great Scottish Repeal Bill to move EU law into Scots Law.
Most Scots voters have signalled that they want to see ministers trying their level best to make Brexit as painless as possible.
When it’s settled, Scots will at least know where the wind has blown Britain.