Submitting.
However, the recent decline in support for leaving the UK in opinion polls may well see that slide down the priority list with instead something of a phony war breaking out over whether Scotland has the right to hold a referendum” or not – unless Boris Johnson decides to follow some Conservative strategists’ advice and “call the nationalists’ bluff”.
All this could occupy a considerable amount of ministerial time, but it’s clear there will also be plenty of other pressing matters to attend to in the new government’s in-tray.
Nicola Sturgeon’s admission that her government took its “eye off the ball” over the high number of drug deaths in Scotland was a frank but shocking one and her choice of words sparked much comment from opposition politicians who feel independence remains an abiding distraction from the more everyday politics that can have a very real impact on people’s lives.
There was one potentially interesting question about the principle of whether Scotland has the right to secede if it wants to. The problem was that the format made any attempt at a sensible answer impossible.
Say “yes” and before a word of sense could emerge, Nicola Sturgeon would have been triumphalist about an “admission” while Douglas Ross would have been declaring “weakness”, rendering anyone other than the Tories untrustworthy in defence of the Union. So, rather than walk into either trap, the question was lost in the general fog.
Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond were wrong about the economics of Scottish independence in 2014 and will be again, says Brian Wilson (Picture: Jane Barlow)
Scottish Election 2021: Women s voices are being heard in party manifestos – Gina Davidson
“If you don’t respect my sex, don’t expect my X” is a slogan currently doing the rounds in some feminist circles on social media.
Friday, 30th April 2021, 7:00 am
An installation of women s shoes outside the Scottish Parliament by a new feminist group aims to highlight women s issues to the political parties. (Picture: Sole Sisters)