CUT THE BLUE OR THE RED WIRE : Nicola Sturgeon is on the receiving end of unsolicited and timely advice today as she celebrates romping home in Scotland.
Even as she warms her hands over Alex Salmond’s failure to win a seat she is being told how best to get permission for a second Independence Referendum from Westminster.
“Just tell Downing Street that IndyRef2 will be advisory only,” an anonymous note is reported to have said. “Worked a treat in the Brexit stitch up. We pulled off a minor win thanks to dark money, electoral law breaking and massive social media manipulation and then called it an overwhelming mandate. It was hilarious.”
Whether or not Ms Sturgeon either needs or will heed the unsolicited tidbit isn’t clear, as she seems to know what she’s about.
“She doesn’t really need to pull off a con like the Brexit referendum,” our Union Analyst comments. “She can rely on an industrial scale gaslighting campaign from Johnson and Gove. They’ll do the work for her.”
Clearly it would be possible to save the United Kingdom but the required tools are unlikely to be in Boris Johnson’s box.
“It will take treating the Scots with respect, furthering empowering Holyrood and a summit on how best to reorganise the power sharing arrangements of the entire country to enable the smaller regions to have an actual say in overall governance. So good luck with that.”
Downing Street is said to believe Johnson can pull it off but leaks suggest plans are also being drawn up for more “Inland Customs Facilities” once the UK’s newest customs border is established north of Newcastle.