ANGUS Robertson has said that the Westminster politicians denying Scotland the right to hold a second independence referendum are borrowing “straight from the playbook of Donald Trump”.
Writing in The Times, the Culture Secretary said that the Scottish Government had a “cast-iron mandate” to hold a second independence referendum after last year’s Holyrood elections resulted in a majority of MSPs in favour of independence.
But efforts by Boris Johnson and Scotland Secretary Alister Jack to deny this fly in the face of democracy, according to Robertson.
He writes: “This effort to deny democratic reality is of course wearily familiar as it borrows straight from the playbook of Donald Trump, who insisted that he and not Joe Biden won the last US presidential election.
“Trump’s desperate protestations are treated, rightly, with disdain. Exactly the same approach should be taken by all those who value and seek to defend democracy when it comes to the spurious nonsense from the anti-independence camp in Scotland.”
It follows Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that she has instructed the Lord Advocate - Scotland’s most senior law officer - to seek a ruling from the UK Supreme Court on whether or not the bill to hold a second independence referendum on October 19 next year is legal.
READ MORE: Scottish independence: Yes and No sides 'neck and neck', poll finds
Robertson writes that the mandate for a referendum is “simple arithmetical and electoral fact” and that “no amount of Tory bluster or attempts to move the goalposts can change that”.
He also makes clear if the UK Supreme Court rules that the Scottish Parliament cannot legislate for a referendum then the next General Election will be fought as a de facto indyref2.
He continues: “In the meantime, the Scottish government and the SNP will focus on the substance rather than the process of the debate.
"That means continuing to highlight the fact that the UK trails far behind many of our nearest European neighbours on a raft of socioeconomic performance league tables.
“Westminster politicians don’t even try to answer why that is, because the reality — that an independent Scotland would be a wealthier, fairer and happier country — is one that they find increasingly hard to engage with, let alone counter.”
The latest Savanta ComRes poll commissioned by The Scotsman found Yes and No to be neck and neck.
Some 44% of those questioned supported independence, while 46% were opposed.
However, when undecided voters were removed, 49% said they would vote Yes, while 51% said they would vote No.
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