SNP and Brexit

Lib Dems Willie Rennie and Vince Cable are beyond optimistic in saying the SNP should be pro-active in calling for a further Brexit referendum.

In public Nicola Sturgeon makes much of a single opinion poll on Scottish independence showing a majority in favour of leaving the UK. Yet doubtless she acknowledges privately that, since virtually every opinion poll in the last four years has been close to the 2014 result, her chance of winning is a long shot.

Yet let’s remember the SNP is a formidable campaigning machine (not a governing party) – but, even in the unlikely event that the nationalists secure a win, it would likely be by a tiny margin, similar to the Brexit poll. So no way is the nationalist leader going to support another poll on the close-run EU referendum.

She doesn’t want a precedent. If separatists were to win Indyref2 – but only just – rest assured we would never be given the chance to reconsider any deal via the ballot box, even as the economic disaster that independence would be became obvious to all of us. The Lib Dems should realise by now the SNP’S concern over Brexit is confined to their ability to use it as a lever for Indyref2.

MARTIN REDFERN Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh