The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Pressure to drop indy poll grows
Call to remove threat
The Scottish Secretary has said he foresees “no circumstances” for a second Scottish referendum taking place before the 2021 Holyrood elections
David Mundell’s comments come as pressure mounts on Nicola Sturgeon to outline her position on a further referendum as senior SNP figures called for the vote to be postponed.
Ms Sturgeon said independence was a factor after her party lost 21 seats in the general election, and vowed to “reflect on the result”.
Mr Mundell said: “The people of Scotland sent Nicola Sturgeon a very, very clear message in last week’s general election – with the cataclysmic performance of the SNP compared to the 2015 general election. They want that threat of a referendum taken off the table.
“Nicola Sturgeon should not be in denial about that. She should wake up, smell the coffee and be absolutely clear with the people of Scotland, as now members of her own party are indicating, and take that threat off the table.
“I don’t see any circumstances in which there is going to be an independence referendum before the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.”
Deputy First Minister John Swinney told the same programme: “Our proposal always was that we should have this referendum, if we have it, at the end of the Brexit process. We’ll consider those proposals and we will consider them in the light of the election campaign.”
He said the end of the Brexit process would be at the end of March 2019, two years after the triggering of Article 50.
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said the independence campaign should be “parked” until Brexit negotiations are over. He wrote in a Sunday newspaper: “Amid the chaos in Westminster it seems certain a hard Brexit is now off the table, and the possibility of bespoke solutions for nations and regions is growing. It follows, therefore, that it is now an option to wait until the Brexit negotiations conclude before forming a view on whether the extent of change justifies a second independence referendum. This would mean that while a second referendum remains an option, the timetable gets parked.”
Meanwhile, former SNP political adviser Alex Bell said the party should “shut up about Indyref2”, adding “the UK is in genuine crisis and there’s no loss of face in letting that settle until some undetermined date”.
Former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said the SNP should “abandon” its current referendum push as “neither the mood is there for it, nor the support in existence to win it”.
Scottish Labour election campaign manager James Kelly said calls for Ms Sturgeon to ditch plans for a second referendum are now “deafening”.
He said: “The uncomfortable truth for the SNP leader is Scots don’t want another referendum – they want her to get on with the job of fixing the mess she has made of our schools and hospitals. Now even senior figures in her own party seem to agree.”
“They want her to get on with the job of fixing the mess she has made”
The general election was supposed to give the UK’s two most powerful women a mandate to get on with cementing their places in history.
But the rest is now history as the walls came tumbling down around them. The general consensus was that both won statistically, but both lost in reality.
As Brexit talks between the UK Government and EU start today, the two big issues are still shrouded in confusion and anger.
Mrs May’s “hard” Brexit now looks on a par with walking across a cliff-edge on a tightrope with no safety net, while juggling wet fish. A shaky deal with the DUP, Commons and Tories seriously split on Brexit strategy, Labour resurgent – a complicated self-inflicted mess created by Mrs May.
Ms Sturgeon, meanwhile, was accused yesterday of “taking a vow of silence” over the immediate future of Indyref2 after almost 40% of her MPs were wiped out.
Up the creek without a paddle is how many would describe it, as most believe the will of the people could not be interpreted in any other way than as a resounding “no” to Indyref2, for now. A volatile power vacuum is developing as we await the outcome of Ms Sturgeon’s period of “reflection”, as she put it at a shell-shocked post-election briefing.
Pressure is mounting to abandon Indyref2 for a few years until the dust has cleared over a final Brexit deal. It comes not only from the usual opponents, but also from respected figures both within and recently connected with the SNP. Scottish voters deserve clarification.
“Pressure to abandon Indyref2 for a few years until the dust has cleared over a final Brexit deal”