Nicola Sturgeon’s Brexit bounce

There was a fairytale quality to Nicola Sturgeon’s speech to the SNP conference this afternoon. On the one hand, she demanded a second referendum on independence next year; on the other, almost no-one in Scottish politics really believes there will be a referendum next year.

In tandem with this rallying call for national liberation – an emancipation made ever more urgent by the looming Brexit fiasco – there ran another line of argument: conference delegates, like the wider nationalist movement, must be careful and canny and patient. Which is another way of saying that, whatever the headlines suggest, it’s probably not happening. At least not yet.

For the last few days, senior SNP figures have stressed time and time again that any referendum must be held on an unimpeachably legal basis. There will be no wildcat plebiscite, no unilateral declaration of independence. No messing about with Catalan-style nonsense. And, frankly, quite right too.