IF you’re a Scottish nationalist it would be understandable if you felt the prospect of independence has never seemed more distant. The appointment of Mike Russell last month to the post of Political Director of the SNP’s Independence Unit was supposed to signal a sense of renewed purpose to the task of securing a second referendum. Instead, it has shifted the movement down a gear – from gradual to glacial. You don’t get to hold such a position in the SNP by previously having shown any tendency towards independence of thought from the mind-set of the party leadership. Mr Russell immediately set himself to the task for which he’d been chosen by Nicola Sturgeon: to contain enthusiasm and downgrade expectations. A second referendum, he told supporters, should only be held “at the right time to win the campaign and the vote”.
Wee Ginger Dug: Scotland can t allow itself to be love-bombed again
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Scottish independence: Call for 100 Scots to sign a declaration to United Nations
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Nicola Sturgeon is abusing the Supreme Court as cover for her stunts – Brian Wilson
The most significant quote of the week, defining the state of Scottish politics, did not come from a politician but the Scottish judge who presides over the Supreme Court, Lord Reed.
Saturday, 3rd July 2021, 4:55 am
Nicola Sturgeon has complained of a politically catastrophic and morally repugnant challenge by the UK Government over the incorporation the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots Law (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/WPA pool/Getty Images)