Sturgeon ‘wholly unprepared’ for another Indyref
NICOLA Sturgeon is ‘wholly unprepared’ for a second independence referendum and is failing to drum up support for separation, a former SNP minister has claimed.
Kenny MacAskill criticised the First Minister’s ‘lack of strategy’ and accused her of ‘failing to address the big issues’ facing her administration.
He said the SNP Government’s ‘just about managing’ approach is ‘insufficient’, following crises including delays to the new sick children’s hospital in Edinburgh and falling exam grades.
Writing in The Scotsman yesterday, the former justice secretary said Miss Sturgeon should be worried by her failure to win voters round to her independence cause despite chaos around Brexit and Boris Johnson taking over as Prime Minister.
He said: ‘It’s the nightmare ticket that some Nationalists have dreamed of, yet things are finely balanced. Nicola Sturgeon’s lack of strategy, never mind a campaign, will see her face increased demands for an early referendum from within.
‘It’s something which she can’t deliver and she’s wholly unprepared for anyway, despite her rhetoric. It’s not just failing to address the big issues but the minor details.’
Miss Sturgeon has said she wants to hold a second indeDUMMY pendence referendum next year, but the UK Government refuses to grant Holyrood the legal powers to hold such a vote.
Mr MacAskill’s comments come after a poll this week showed 52 per cent of Scots now back independence – the first time since March 2017 that a majority have done so. Mr MacAskill claimed that ‘for the SNP, there must be concern at the narrowness of the lead’.
He added: ‘So, the neverendum continues with no likelihood of it happening any time soon. Not quite the irresistible force against the immovable object but certainly a position where the intransigence of one maintains support for the other. Groundhog Day, I fear.’
Scottish Tory chief whip Maurice Golden said: ‘The SNP is failing Scotland across the board with the longest waiting times, falling education standards and, as the Sick Kids Hospital fiasco shows, total incompetence.
‘Nicola Sturgeon’s government record is abysmal and it’s no wonder cracks are appearing at the heart of the SNP machine.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘A majority now back independence and want that choice over their future before 2021.
‘It would be a democratic outrage for any Tory government to deny that, and such an anti-democratic position is completely unsustainable.’
‘Her government record is abysmal’