Who has the better mandate: Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon?

For the last week, the Unionist opposition at the Scottish parliament has enjoyed observing that the Scottish government is happy to ignore non-binding votes at Holyrood when it suits them to do so but now expects the UK government to be bound by today’s vote authorising the Scottish government to seek a Section 30 order that would begin the process by which a lawful second referendum on independence can be held.

It is a neat line but an insufficient one, not least since this vote – unlike some of those on which the SNP government has been defeated – actually recommends a particular course of action that the government should follow. In like fashion, the Unionist argument that we are in materially different circumstances from those that pertained in 2012 when all the parties agreed there were grounds for a plebiscite is, while correct, also insufficient. The fact of the matter is that votes count more than manifesto commitments and if the government has the numbers, it has the votes.