‘Impressive’ Sturgeon needs to share fine details before push for IndyRef2

Sir, – I attended the Iain Dale chat with Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday. No wonder he described her as one of the most impressive politicians he has interviewed. If Liz Truss ever wants to improve her “attention-seeker” barbs she should watch the Vogue section of the podcast and see how the FM neatly positioned her in the magazine’s “classified ads”.

In general it was a masterclass in skating over the questions and perpetuating myths and grievances ably assisted by Dale obligingly tugging his newly-sprouted forelock and lacking the detailed knowledge required for any follow-up questions.

Most strikingly, Ms Sturgeon was allowed to brush off border issues as “the same as Norway and Sweden” and solvable by “planning” as opposed to years of hard-nosed negotiation with the UK and EU.

Most of the audience loved it and I was left wondering what their reaction would have been if Iain Dale had winkled the truth out of her.

As someone who is willing to consider independence on the right terms it was depressing to come away thinking that, after 15 years, we are miles from a definitive, accepted, way forward based on facts and agreement.

First of all, independence should be proposed by a government that has shown it genuinely has improved the country as far as it can. It hasn’t.

Next it should have a worked-out plan agreed with the UK and other stakeholders which resolves major issues like pensions, currency, debt, transition timescale and cost, borders and trade. It hasn’t.

This plan should be independently verified and demonstrate that things can, and will, get better. It doesn’t.

And lastly, all of this should be put to the people in a joint Scotland-UK proposition, and voted on.

It really is high time this whole situation was either shelved, or the hard yards put in by both governments to agree the above in a clarity act.

Alternatively, after the advocate general’s decision which points to the SNP using the next general election to win the right to hold a referendum, the pro-UK parties should make the passing of a clarity act a manifesto commitment.