We’ve just taken our first week off in eight years, and no sooner are we back than the whole world’s turned on its head. Because this is Brian Wilson in today’s Scotsman.
The only thing we don’t understand is: if a Holyrood majority for independence will be valid in 2021, why isn’t it valid now?
Wilson is a lifelong opponent of devolution and a fervent defender of the UK system of parliamentary democracy, rather than direct democracy. And we also know he doesn’t care about manifestos (the usual tissue-paper Unionist excuse for rejecting the March 2017 vote being that the 2016 Green manifesto didn’t explicitly pledge a second indyref – even though the motion would have still passed 63-59 without Green votes).
So we profess ourselves perplexed. No outcome of the 2021 election could produce a mandate clearer than the one Holyrood delivered two and a half years ago. Any vote of the Parliament that would be valid in 2021 is valid now.
We suspect that what the column REALLY reveals is that Wilson wants Labour to pledge to honour any 2021 mandate, but have no intention of actually doing so. And that, at least, would be familiar ground.
