Single-minded Sturgeon

If it hasn't been noticeable before then it surely must be now.  Nicola Sturgeon has only ever been about one thing - independence.  Like her predecessor, Mr Alex Salmond, there is only one think lurking in her mind and that is going down in the history books as the one that broke up the United Kingdom.

In a move that was almost accompanied by a stamp of tantrum feet, Nicola Sturgeon announced last week that, whatever it takes, she is going to have her independence referendum.  She's already trying the legal route to force one and, should all else fail (as it will), she will fight the next general election on one thing only - independence.  She will use the result of the general election to prove there should be a referendum.

Unfortunately for Nicola, the result of a UK-wide general election would prove no such thing.  She may instruct her MP's and want-to-be MP's to fight the election on one topic but how can anyone vote for a party in a general election who is not the slightest bit interested in anything else.  Nothing domestic on the agenda.  Just one sole subject which will, by then, have been flogged to death by a party with nothing else to say.

Nothing to say on drug deaths, the decline in education and healthcare.  The lack of mental health services particularly for the young.  No words on how Scotland will continue to be steered out of the pandemic, how individuals and businesses will be supported to continue to get back on track following two years of shut downs.  She can't just wipe her hands of it and say it's done.  It's far from done and with Covid numbers on the rise again, it's an issue she might very well have to deal with again in the near future, never mind anything else.

There's nothing.  Scotland will find itself in limbo yet again, while a one-trick-pony limbers up for something that isn't going to happen.  

Sturgeon might well look at the reaction her news of a pretend referendum has received.  Not much in reality.  Her most hardcore supporters delighted, of course, and The National got excited for a day or two, otherwise - nothing.  The reaction that has come back is that she's wasting £20 million that could easily be better spent at this time.  Callers to radio stations and commentators alike have questioned her extremely poor timing.  War in Ukraine, cost-of-living crisis, these should come before any attempt at causing constitutional change.

How could any First Minister of Scotland sit behind her desk, look at the state of her own country at the hands of her own party, and think that £20 million should be spent on something that won't happen?