Would something short of full EU membership be acceptable to the SNP?

AS Theresa May met Nicola Sturgeon to maintain what the new Prime Minister has termed the “Special Union”, the positions of the two Governments seem diametrically at odds over the UK’s move towards a divorce from Brussels.

Of course, the word Scotland did not appear on the ballot paper on June 23; the words United Kingdom did.

From Mrs May’s perspective, the UK Government will include Edinburgh closely in the process, but they are adamant Brexit will be done on a UK basis. And they are against the prospect of a second independence poll on their watch.

Stewart Hosie has made some interesting comments, repeatedly referring to Scotland’s “status” within the EU. Was this a suggestion, for the first time perhaps, that something short of full-blown membership of the EU might be, to use Scottish Secretary David Mundell’s phrase, “doable”?

The SNP’s Treasury spokesman at Westminster said new Chancellor Philip Hammond had been “foolish” to “slam the door” so quickly on the possibility of Scotland getting some sort of tailored deal to maintain its EU status. If at the end of the Brexit talks, the UK were to secure a kind of deal with Brussels in which access to the single market without tariff barriers is maintained together with free movement – albeit with some increased restrictions – would that be enough for the SNP Government?

Or, as some suspect, is Ms Sturgeon simply going through the motions? If the SNP Government is intent on using the Brexit process simply to massage public opinion towards independence, then the fundamental principle – that the FM will only call a second referendum when she thinks she can win it – still applies.

This, of course, all depends on the public mood. But Ms Sturgeon might only have a narrow window of opportunity to garner sufficient voter support.

If the SNP leader is unable to see that sustained level of support before Brexit occurs, then the backdrop to the issue of Scottish independence fundamentally changes.

Scottish voters will be presented with the choice of staying in the UK outwith the EU, possibly even with a good tailored deal on single market access and the free movement of people, or breaking away from Britain and beginning the process of applying for its own EU membership.