Scotland is going to the polls on May 6 for what promises to be a landmark national election. It’s the first since the Brexit referendum in June 2016, which led to Scotland (and Northern Ireland) leaving the EU against its will.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has long said this is a “material change” in the nation’s circumstances that justifies a second referendum on Scottish independence. Support for independence has been much improved ever since. Sturgeon is now using the May election to seek a mandate for a second referendum.
To help understand the machinations, we caught up with Kezia Dugdale for our podcast The Conversation Weekly. She is the director of the John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow and a lecturer in public policy. She was Scottish Labour leader between 2015 and 2017. Here are some edited extracts from the conservation.