THE First Minister’s strategy for achieving independence chills me to the bone. And I’m not the only one. Why? Because having failed for eight years to persuade a majority of Scots about the merits of independence and having capitulated to Boris Johnson’s refusal to grant another referendum, Nicola Sturgeon has been reduced to begging the UK Supreme Court to override the central provisions of the 1997 Scotland Act.
Among the consequences of her inevitable defeat will be the cancellation of her October 2023 referendum. How will that encourage anyone who yearns for independence? I read Gerry Hassan’s new book, Scotland Rising: The Case for Independence, in the hope he might pose the central questions independence supporters need to address if we are to finally escape this malaise. If his writing was to have any value, I felt, it had to explain:
1. Why is there no majority for independence? And if, as the public affairs adviser Andy Maciver and most others conclude [P56] “... the obvious reason why Yes couldn’t make it over the line last time round was the weakness in its economic case”, what are we doing to rectify that failing?
