At last, an admission on independence

IMAGINE the righteous outrage which Nicola sturgeon would demonstrate if a Westminster Government – labour or tory – were to suggest one of its policies was more important than the economy.

More important than the nation’s wealth or balance sheet? Miss sturgeon would ask. the same wealth that pays for schools and hospitals, which cares for the elderly and needy? the same balance sheet which makes scotland a well-governed, stable, investment-friendly nation?

the moral indignity would be cranked up to the maximum. And doubtless the only solution to this recklessness that the First Minister could recommend would be (you guessed it) independence.

But this casual dismissal of economic good sense came yesterday from the First Minister herself.

Writing on the second anniversary of scotland’s rejection of her independence dream, Miss sturgeon brushed away the mounting evidence that a Yes vote would have led this country into economic ruin.

the case for full self-government, she wrote, ‘ultimately transcends the issues of Brexit, of oil, of national wealth and balance sheets and of passing political fads and trends’.

so there we have it. By her own admission, we now know that the First Minister cares more about independence than anything else. Not hospitals, not education, not creating jobs for all.

it is, of course, a conclusion that this newspaper has frequently drawn. But never before has the First Minister been so open in acknowledging her own obsessive singularity of purpose.

two years on from scots voting to remain in the most successful political union the world has ever seen, the scottish Government remains as committed as ever to dismantling it.