Revealed: The SNP strategy for a second independence vote

A new leaflet from the SNP says another referendum on independence is ‘an issue of basic democracy’ and that Boris Johnson ‘is seeking to block the democratic right of the people of Scotland to decide our own future’. The eight-page missive, which I understand is being distributed initially to party members, is entitled ‘A Referendum for Recovery’ and features the ‘Yes’ branding of the SNP’s campaign for indyref2.

The booklet is anchored by a short essay by Mike Russell, party president and former constitution minister in Nicola Sturgeon’s devolved administration at Holyrood. He writes that the Prime Minister is ‘changing the whole foundation of the UK’ from ‘a voluntary union based on the idea of partnership’ to one of ‘asserting Westminster control over Scotland’. Russell contends that, while the Tories consider the ‘democratic rights’ of Scots ‘subordinate to Westminster control’, independence would bring ‘a genuine partnership of equals with our friends in the rest of the UK’.