Chris

And you may repeat “nothing of legal standing” as you please - it is a piece of misdirection regardless of how often it is repeated.

The very practice of holding referendums in our constitution can only ever be advisory in nature. Everything about the way they are conducted is built on a shared understanding of what the outcome of the vote will be. The most the Edinburgh Declaration could say was that both sides would recognise the result as definitive. It was clear afterwards, from comments made by both SNP signatories to that agreement, what they considered definitive to be. Without caveat, this was “once in a generation, if not once in a lifetime.” We therefore all voted on the understanding that we had better do so thoughtfully because it was a one-off.

Nationalists are of course free in our democracy to go on arguing that black is white but that doesn’t alter the government’s absolutely reasonable decision to point out that 2014 produced a definitive result which it intends to respect. Sturgeon is of course free to go on publishing pie in the sky plans to do this that and the other, but she has publicly and repeatedly accepted the real constitutional position and knows she can’t pull off a referendum anyone outside the nationalist movement will take seriously without transfer of powers from this country’s only sovereign parliament.

Sturgeon’s primary objective is to appear sufficiently engaged with the indyref proposition so as not to be dismissed from party leadership by her own hardliners. But she knows that the real prize is not to hold a publicity stunt vote, but to win a legally watertight referendum.