Yousaf’s defacto Declaration of Independence is impossible to take seriously

The First Minister thinks he can “lay the foundation of an independent state” on one third of the popular vote.

The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, loves describing the SNP as a monomaniacal party obsessed with “Breaking up Britain” to the exclusion of policies that actually improve people’s material lives. Now Humza Yousaf has apparently given him proof by proposing a new version of Nicola Sturgeon’s discredited idea of turning the next general election into a “defacto referendum” on independence. Only Yousaf’s fantasy plebiscite isn’t even a referendum. It would be based, not on the SNP winning a majority of votes at the next election, but merely winning a majority of seats, something they could achieve on little more than a third of the vote.

This is a recalibration of the Indyref project based on the cold reality that the SNP is heading for a major electoral setback next year following the scandals of donorgate, the ferries fiasco and the botched deposit return scheme. But Yousaf’s defacto referendum 2.0 makes little sense as a political programme. Neither the First Minister nor his legion of spin-doctors at the SNP’s special conference in Dundee last weekend could explain how it could possibly work. As the former SNP First Minister, Alex Salmond, pointed out, it is at best “a road to nowhere”. The SNP was already facing the loss of seats at the next general election, but this will only accelerate the rout. Here’s why…