Not much of a climbdown after losing so many votes

Nicola sturgeon is delaying a referendum the public don’t want, she legally can’t hold and pollsters say she wouldn’t win.

in the bizarre world that is modern British politics, the move was widely seen as a climbdown.

the First Minister actually did as little as she could possibly get away with after shedding half a million voters and 21 MPs in the snap general election.

the so-called “reset” of indyRef2 was simply acknowledging the reality of the situation the snp leader finds herself in.

as sturgeon herself admitted, the public are sick and tired of voting and have no appetite for another trip to the polling station.

and even if they did agree to another referendum and the UK Government didn’t block it, all polls say they would vote No again.

as such, sturgeon’s big announcement was roughly equivalent to me declaring i am postponing my plan to elope to Monaco with taylor swift.

the only real practical impact of yesterday’s announcement is that journalists will have to find something else to write about over the next year.

so what now for sturgeon, the snp and the wider Yes movement?

the public remain unconvinced by indy and the constitutional Groundhog day is starting to take a toll on the party’s popularity.

so the plans for a renewed drive to “mobilise” support for a UK split and to “refresh” the scottish Government over the summer were shrewd.

the second of the two will be far more important.

despite sturgeon’s insistence another referendum could still be held before the next holyrood election, she must realise that idea is now for the birds.

to have any chance of securing another vote, the Snp will require a whopping victory in that 2021 poll.

to achieve that will mean exerting significant energy to fix scotland’s struggling public services and restoring the Nationalists’ reputation for competent government.

Only then can sturgeon turn her attention to winning independence.

she’ll be hoping to find a UK imploding under a disastrous Brexit and scots looking for an escape route.