Scottish independence

It will be the best kept secret ever if they have a leader in waiting

I'd imagine most political parties will have several awaiting their chance.

The main stumbling block to independence is the issue of the EU.

An independent Scotland inside the EU will lead to a whole new set of problems with England (border issues, different currency etc). It's putting off Scottish voters from wanting independence.

So rather than being a plus for Scottish independence, Brexit has been a disaster for the movement.

It's a bit premature to be writing off independence. Polls have up and down and in the lead all through 22 and even in Jan this year.

It seems that the issue is settled for now as there was a referendum on the matter a few years ago.

Brexit has made things worse for the cause and perhaps Scotland is better off waiting a generation. Maybe the UK as a whole will rejoin the EU in 30 or 40 years time. Then it might be opportune for the SNP to force a second referendum.

But there has never been any sort of momentum. It's always stuck in the low to mid 50s.

And every time there is a precieved misstep by London the same people are on here telling us that this will be the thing that starts to push support for independence higher and higher..... and it never happenes.

Oh don't worry about things like that, they will be easy to work out, it will be no problem, Scotland can have the best of both worlds

Does that sound familiar?

In the end she proved herself to be an extremely poor politician.

She picked the trans issue as a way to show Scotland needs to be out of the UK when it was obvious she didn't really believe in it herself and it was obvious that it is a minor issue that people really don't care about and this has now led to her downfall.

Indeed, she and the SNP don't strike me as a social issues type party.

Why they went down this route against their own instincts is baffling.

One can only assume it was designed as an anti Tory strategy, rather than a serious attempt to improve trans rights.

Oh ya sorry you meant the non poll type of support which is absolutely impossible to quantify outside your own head.

You could but on what basis? There are no federal elections in the UK and this has been pointed out to you many many times previously yet you still persist in stating there are.

You also assert that the NHS in Scotland is failing yet fail to acknowledge Scotland is not an independent country and the budget is set in Westminster. The NHS is failing across all four NHS in the UK and the only common denominator is the Westminster govt. In fact, the NHS in Scotland outperforms the other three in the UK.

Very hard to believe that something like this would be the deciding factor in her future as a politician - it's really only a minority 'culture war' issue of interest to the English far right aka the Daily Mail, GB News etc

To be fair, those results match the voters for independence so really anyone leading the SNP during that period should expect those numbers. The problem for Sturgeon and her legacy is many of those voters feel duped

She was popular, but failed in most if not all other tasks.

Scotland can "pride itself" with the highest death rate on drug abuse in Europe, - domestically Sturgeon didn't do anything about that. She also failed in domestic issues like the NHS Scotland which is far worse off than the one in England, same as on education matters.

Furthermore, Sturgeon has a law degree, right? But yet she claims to make the next UK general election a quasi referendum on Scottish independence. That after the supreme court of justice has ruled that Edinburgh had no right to hold a second referendum. As a studied lawyer she should at least understand that. Plus the majority of seats from Scotland in Westminster are already held by the SNP? Come on, are the Scotts really going to fall for that idiocy? A UK general election is certainly not a referendum on independence.

Also the fact that she has left no front runner, no succession in place, leads me to believe that her departure was one in desperation. If she really cared so much and was so confident in an independent Scotland she would at least have nominated a worthy successor, but she didn't.

There is also an ongoing investigation by the police into SNP finances and campaign fraud. A very delicate matter for any first minister.....

At least Sturgeon is smart and knew when to go, before somebody else tells her to....