Even Nationalists do not want Indyref 2

THE SNP is in the midst of a full-blown crisis as it grapples with voters’ outright rejection of its plans for a rapid Indyref 2.

Leader Nicola Sturgeon last week tried to claim there was only ‘speculation’ about abandoning the policy but now senior figures are openly demanding Indyref 2 is shelved. MP Tommy Sheppard, once a contender for the party’s deputy leadership, is the latest to call for a U-turn.

No doubt that is down to him seeing his majority in Edinburgh East tumbling from over 9,000 in 2015 to just 3,425 on June 8.

He knows the agitation for another attempt to break up Britain is doing the party no favours with an electorate tired of poor governance and the SNP’s constitutional obsession.

Meanwhile, the stage is set for an SNP civil war as a sizeable group of fundamentalists think the independence push should continue. Strange days for a party once infamous for their united front and hive-mind ‘we all just happen to think alike’ mentality.

And whither Miss Sturgeon in all this? She is still, she says, ‘reflecting’ on election results that saw her party lose a third of its MPs, among them big shots Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson.

Hard to believe this is the same Miss Sturgeon who instantaneously decided the Brexit vote was the perfect grievance on which to piggyback Indyref 2.

That increasingly looks like a major strategic error. Scots showed in the election that the UK means more to them than the EU. They grasp Brexit offers both opportunities and pitfalls but that a reckless and opportunistic SNP trying to break up the UK is a serious risk to our future prosperity.

Meanwhile, the silence as Miss Sturgeon prevaricates is deafening and the ongoing uncertainty damages the confidence of both voters and businesses.

Should she ignore voters to push on with another referendum, it will underscore how out of touch she is.

Scotland wants its politicians to tackle difficult real-world problems such as the NHS, education and justice — and Miss Sturgeon should be reflecting on that, not just on her party hotheads’ separatist agenda.