OPINION IndyRef2 is not dead – just waiting in the wings
In the end it wasn’t just the right decision. It was the only decision.
Nicola Sturgeon has opted to put a second independence referendum on the back burner.
The SNP leader was right to be as aggressive as she was in calling for a new poll in the wake of Brexit.
She had the mandate and it was constitutionally the right thing to do.
It contributed to a chain of events which led to Theresa May calling this month’s General Election.
Despite the loss of 21 Westminster seats, Sturgeon’s Brexit hand may have been strengthened as a result of May’s hollow victory.
It’s right that this, and the domestic record of the SNP Government, become twin priorities without IndyRef2 as a distraction. The political landscape has changed remarkably since the UK voted to leave the EU in June last year. Nobody builds on shifting sands and the political scene is too turbulent. Sturgeon now has a golden opportunity to re-establish the competence of the SNP Government while dabbling with the international stateswoman role which has served her well in the past.
It will allow her to heal some of the old wounds from the bitterly-fought first instalment in 2014.
But anyone who thinks Scotland has had its only referendum for a generation are kidding themselves. IndyRef2 will take place and it remains a matter of when, not if.
Voters who said it had been killed by the General Election are making a number of crucial misjudgments.
Firstly, the SNP’s vote share at the last election – seen as at a low ebb – was 37 per cent. In itself, not a bad base to build a referendum campaign from.
Secondly, tens of thousands of the voters who migrated back to Labour would be natural Yes voters. The perennially misjudged Jeremy Corbyn knew exactly what he was doing when he took a soft position on the constitution.
Thirdly, the electorate at the next referendum will be a completely different prospect from the one which went to the ballot boxes on June 9.
There will be a new generation of voters ready to have a big say. Young and neglected by the Tories. In the medium term, the demographics are in favour of the Yes campaign.
So the seemingly endless debate about the Scottish constitution may disappear for a while.
Politics has changed since the vote to leave the EU. Nobody builds on shifting sands