Nicola Sturgeon vows to start process of second independence referendum

I agree. She's flogging a dead horse.

Aye well good luck to her, she will need it. People have more on their minds right now. I honestly cannot face even more division in this country than what there is already. Not one person I know can be bothered with this. I just want to stick my head under the covers at the thought of it. Do we not have enough to be going on with?

I just think she’s peaked.

She was voted in on a mandate for Independence just last May ...so why is it a dead duck? The number of voters who want Independence is rising all the time .If you dont live here you wont know how the land lies.If the past two years (+ Brexit) have shown us anything then its that we are not just second class citizens where Westminster is concerned we dont exist!!
Our elected representatives at WM are treated with disdain an disrespect why would we continue to send them to a parliament where we haven't a cats chance in hell of getting anything done .
INDEPENDENCE IS NORMAL .If there was no need or call for it then why have Scottish voters returned the SNP to power time after time ? Its not some tactic to tell the tories we dont want them...we've more than proven that by not voting them into power since 1955 ..yes that IS NINETEEN FIFTY FIVE .As for labour they are a lost cause with their only MP predicted to lose his seat next time round .
Please understand we dont hate English people ,but we will be happier and better off with them as good neighbours and not bad masters ..which is what they've been for most of 314 years .

Can England have a vote please ?

Maybe if you put more effort/thought into your own governanceand let us run our own affairs you wouldn't be in the mess that Bojo and his circus have made of your country while dragging the rest of us under with you.

I’d be more interested if she concentrated on making sure I could have the operation I’ve been waiting nearly two years for.

Well, its not news because she announced it in September.

However, I think its too soon. We'll only get one more go at this and unless we can get more of the country on board we'll lose again. But she's between a rock and a hard place - between people like me who want independence but are willing to wait, and those who are desperate for it and want it now.

However if it happens I'll be voting Yes. Obviously.

Urmstongran

I just think she’s peaked.

Peaked is it? Dream on.

I get what your saying paddyanne it’s just that (in my opinion) Nicola Sturgeon’s quest for Indy2 is running out of steam. I just don’t see the same appetite for it now as before.

I think the SNP have blown it with various bad optics. The drug crisis, falling educational standards, the ferry fiasco to name a few. I just wonder whether the majority of voters in Scotland are with her or are they hoping instead for some better governance on issues closer to their hearts and taxes?

I think the SNP have blown it with various bad optics.

Is that why they are forecast to win every seat at the next Westminster General Election?

Honestly Urmstongran, there are serious point to be made here about governance but just making things up that suit your misconceptions isn't the way to go.

And finally - there is a difference between being an SNP supporter and supporting independence. Bear that in mind.

Oh I should have said. Most people in Scotland that I know are pleased and proud to pay their taxes. We're not obsessed with it. Which is one of the reasons the Tories rarely get a look in.

Alegrias1

Oh I should have said. Most people in Scotland that I know are pleased and proud to pay their taxes. We're not obsessed with it. Which is one of the reasons the Tories rarely get a look in.

Well said!

Are the next elections in May?

"Most people in Scotland that I know are pleased and proud to pay their taxes."
Well, Alegrias1 (and Blondiescot), you obviously move in circles inhabited by people of quite outstanding moral rectitude: upstanding - nay saintly - folk, who are driven by charitable convictions and motives of the purest altruism towards their fellow Scots, and inspired by the examples set by their wise and benevolent politicians.
How unlike the execrable attitude displayed by me and my own Scottish relatives and aquaintances, who overwhelmingly regard taxes as - at best - a necessary evil, and try our damndest every day to hang on to as many as possible of our hard-earned bawbees...

Tory are ye?

Or just sarcastic and selfish?

Will Scotland become Independent and then endeavour to be ruled by Brussels?

Morning Bodach your comment started my day with a chuckle - thanks!

The late Charles Kennedy was hated by the SNP I seem to recall for pointing out two simple economic facts:

a) You cannot base your economy on oil as Salmond tried to do
b) An independent Scotland could not retain sterling as it's currency and allow it to be shared with the Bank of England.

Has anything changed?

Bodach I don't think anyone actually ENJOYS paying tax, but I was brought up to believe that those who could, should - so that we can all benefit from the services that tax helps to provide, and those most in need receive the help they deserve. I'd far rather be paying it to an independent Scotland though. Does that clarify my views on the subject?

I'm happy to pay taxes and contribute to the running of the country it's just that after 15 years of SNP govt all I can see is their wastage of billions of pounds due to very poor decision making on so many fronts not least the disastrous ferries project but among others the vast amounts in compensation due to legal cock ups. Soaring drug death rates, plummeting educational attainment etc etc etc. You don't have to be a Tory to be absolutely sick of it all and embarrassed at what this Scottish 'government' have brought us to.

Maybe not on oil Urms but on brains and ingenuity.
I have been reading Boswell's journal Tour to the Hebrides written in 1773. He and Samuel Johnson were keen to see these primitive savages living in black houses with peat fires who lived on oats and turnips but were disappointed to find that Scotland was a civilised country with no less than 4 universities at a time when England had only 2.
The English have been rude about their neighbours for a very long time.

Back then, soon after the union, a Scotsman, John Stuart, Earl of Bute, was Tory PM at Westminster and a close friend of King George 3rd.

Rewriting history now UG? You "recall" wrong.

I don't always agree with Aveline but her criticisms of the SNP are based on their performance in Government. Not on fantasy.

Oopsadaisy1

Will Scotland become Independent and then endeavour to be ruled by Brussels?

So we've had:

Can the English have a vote?
You can't rely on oil you know.
And
Do you want to be ruled by Brussels then?

Any more fatuous red herrings to get out of the way before we move on?