Wait and see is only sensible plan

IN THE end, Nicola Sturgeon took the only strategic option available, to delay any attempt at an independence referendum until, as she said, “the fog of Brexit is lifted”.

Most obviously, though conveniently overlooked by the SNP, she does not have the power to hold a referendum.

Theresa May would swat back a humiliating refusal and anyway, the public do not want to heap more uncertainty on the Brexit situation.

Sturgeon talked yesterday about the “fog of Brexit” clearing before she makes a decision on the timing of IndyRef2.

It will be more like when the dust has settled on Brexit before the SNP leadership decide the time is right, if it ever will be, to put the nation through a second independence vote.

The SNP leadership didn’t need to be generals of the political battlefield to work this one out.

The public, in Scotland particularly, are exhausted by politics and fed up with the division caused by two referendum campaigns.

Far better, Sturgeon calculates, to wait for the country to move beyond Brexit and for the SNP to consolidate the already strong base for independence.

How that will play with the thousands of hungry activists is an unknown but acceptable risk. Better to test the patience of a few keyboard warriors and Salmondites than to risk the derision of the Scottish voters by going too soon.

So it is Safety First Sturgeon, at the cost of leaving Scotland in the constitutional waiting room for years to come.