Why the SNP is putting indyref2 at the centre of its campaign?
On Tuesday Nicola Sturgeon launched the Scottish National party (SNP) manifesto in Glasgow with the pledge to “escape Brexit” and to help deliver a second referendum on the UK remaining in the European Union.
"This election really matters. People are heartily sick of Brexit and the mess at Westminster”, the SNP leader and first minister of Scotland wrote in the introduction to the manifesto.
"But there is no end in sight to the Westminster Brexit chaos. A vote for the SNP is a vote to escape Brexit."
She also branded Boris Johnson "dangerous and unfit for office" and rejected the prime minister’s claims that voting Conservative would ‘get Brexit done’ by 31 January.
The SNP is also pushing very hard for a second referendum. The “referendum” appears 21 times in the manifesto arguing that the chaos over Brexit meant that Scotland should not be dragged out of the EU against its will if the UK leaves in January 2020.
‘The truth is that Brexit will dominate Westminster politics for years and years to come, and Scotland will pay a heavy price,’ Sturgeon warned.
At the last general election in 2017, the SNP lost 21 out of 56 seats, which was blamed in part on its support for independence. The proportion of SNP voters who were against independence fell to 17%, compared to 25% in 2015 – meaning many anti-indyref voters had abandoned the party.
So why, therefore, push so hard for another indyref now?
The SNP hopes that anxiety over Brexit in Scotland could see it win more than 50 seats and take out the few Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem ones left.
The party claims that winning the most seats in Scotland would send a "clear" message that an independence referendum must be held next year.
They also believe that the success of that campaign could determine whether Britain leaves the European Union in January and maybe even the survival of the United Kingdom.
What is clear is that increasing political and moral pressure will likely be brought to bear on the future UK Government to facilitate a new referendum, but one question begging to be asked is whether the country is really good enough, or rich enough, to be independent?
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