Sturgeon’s foreign policy power grab

There is certainly a lot to catch the eye in the SNP’s manifesto published on Thursday. If you look you will find a promise of free bicycles and laptops for schoolchildren, a national care service, and a £33bn National Infrastructure Mission, not to mention an undertaking that there will be no income tax rises to pay for it all. Rather less expected, however, is the large proportion of the document devoted to another topic: Scottish foreign relations.

Foreign relations in the context of elections to a purely regional assembly in a country where international issues are reserved for decision centrally? Absolutely. Here are a few examples. Commercially, we read of proposals to develop direct connections between Scottish ports and foreign countries, it being seen as somehow important for Scottish trade not to be demeaned by having to pass through England. There is also an idea to establish Scottish ‘investment hubs’ overseas.