Jamie Maxwell

As Nico­la Stur­geon pre­pares to leave Holy­rood, Scot­land’s in­de­pen­dence dream is slow­ly fad­ing away.

By ve­to­ing the bill, the Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment in Lon­don ex­er­cised ‘mus­cu­lar union­ism’.

Thats why the de­mand for an­oth­er ref­er­en­dum has sparked a de­bate about what kind of coun­try the UK tru­ly is.

The elec­tion showed that the Union’s fu­ture will be de­cid­ed by Scot­land – ei­ther in the bal­lot box or the courts.

The UK gov­ern­ment’s in­ept re­sponse to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has put Scot­tish in­de­pen­dence back on the agen­da.

A Labour-SNP coali­tion could re­order the UK’s eco­nom­ic land­scape, end free mar­ket or­tho­doxy, and even re­verse Brex­it.

Scot­land’s pro-in­de­pen­dence camp might not sur­vive in­creas­ing in­ter­nal dis­uni­ty.

Scots may have vot­ed against Brex­it, but they still pre­fer to share sov­er­eign­ty with Lon­don rather than Brus­sels.

Thanks to aus­ter­i­ty and Brex­it, the Scot­tish in­de­pen­dence idea is still alive.

Nico­la Stur­geon’s ob­sti­nate cen­trism is hurt­ing the SNP and Scot­land’s in­de­pen­dence move­ment.