Nicola Sturgeon has fallen into a trap of her own making

Nicola Sturgeon is expert at laying traps for her opponents but this time she may have ensnared herself. During the May 2016 Holyrood elections, the SNP leader and occasional First Minister said a Leave vote in the upcoming EU referendum should be grounds for a second ballot on independence. This, of course, was when Remain was expected to win and when England voted Out while Scotland voted In, Sturgeon’s bluff was called. She has spent the past three years devising evermore elaborate ruses to distract her restive grassroots. The latest is a Citizens’ Assembly, a forum used in Ireland to ease in constitutional changes on gay marriage and abortion.  

The idea is to bring together 120 randomly-selected Scots to ruminate on the future of the nation. The Caledonian Sanhedrin will, in theory, consider questions like ‘what kind of country are we seeking to build?’ and ‘how can we overcome the challenges Scotland faces, including Brexit?’ It sounds like a jolly old focus group — each member will get £1,200 plus expenses for six weekends’ work — and a harmless if woolly exercise.