SCOTLAND will be left in "a repetitive campaigning state" if it does not hold an independence referendum soon, according to an EU expert.

Kirsty Hughes, the former director of the Scottish Centre on European Relations, said indyref2 is "the dominant issue in politics" in Scotland and that this has its downsides.

Writing in The Herald, she said: "If it’s a question of when, not if, another vote will happen, wouldn’t it be good to get it over with quickly?

"Scotland’s politics may look relatively normal compared to the extraordinary trajectory of the UK’s politics in recent years. But it’s not that normal, or that healthy, when the dominant issue in politics is essentially a permanent campaign to which most else is subsumed (apart, right now, from Covid-19)."

READ MORE: Kirsty Hughes: EU would be completely open to Scotland rejoining

Hughes argued that most Yes supporters will want a referendum as soon as possible whereas Unionists might want to see what the state of affairs is in 2022.

"The economic impacts of the Covid crisis will still be strongly felt then (a potential plus for the unionist side), and – it has to be hoped – the health impacts will be much more under control," she explained.

Hughes added that some independence supporters might want to wait until the Yes vote is at 60% in the polls, instead of the 54% it is currently at. 

She said: "Some independence supporters might prefer a slower path – building support to 60% and more, working up the policy arguments. And many unionists doubtless hope that putting it off for several years will, somehow, lead to a sea-change in opinion.

"But, in the end, a politics of constant campaigning has some real downsides, whichever side you’re on. For a start, it means a mostly very inward-looking and a very process-driven debate. Is the Union a great thing or on its last legs? Does the Scottish Government have a democratic mandate to hold another vote? How badly is devolution malfunctioning? Would any Plan B work? And so on."

Hughes believes the SNP's push for independence allows greater focus on European issues but it is restricted to how quickly an independent Scotland could join the EU, rather than the European green deal, the new Covid recovery fund and future EU budget deal.

"Whether as part of the UK, or as an independent Scotland in the EU, these global challenges need serious debate," she said.

Hughes said that if Scotland voted against independence in a new referendum, time "could be used to push for a more positive transformation of the Union".

But she acknowledged that the situation is more nuanced than that, concluding: "But, of course, democratic politics doesn’t work that way ... The world is in a deeply unstable state and it would behove both sides of the independence divide to spend more time engaging with those wider challenges."

"Scotland’s politics, given the constitutional divide, is inevitably stuck in a repetitive campaigning state. But let’s look forward to the day when Scottish politics, at last, moves on."