Scottish Conservatives have attracted unionist voters who might not stick with them if the threat of independence were seen to recede.
The First Minister has a powerful gift for weaving myths about herself, but should not be allowed to write the first draft of history alone.
“I know it might seem sudden, but I have been wrestling with it for weeks”, says the outgoing First Minister and SNP leader.
A litany of domestic failures and the murky state of SNP finances are all possible factors. But his shattering the illusion that the Tories could not win a constitutional fight seems to have tipped the balance.
The BBC is reporting that the Scottish National Party leader and First Minister will make the announcement at a news conference in Edinburgh.
Time and again, their more muscular – to borrow a phrase – approach to Westminster’s prerogatives has paid off. Yet they don’t set Union policy.
The Scottish Secretary, understated in his public utterances, “often makes the wittiest interjections in Cabinet discussions”.
There is no splitting the difference between the centre ground of British public opinion and an extreme minority of activist bullies.
So far public opinion has failed to rally behind the First Minister on either the constitutional principle or the substance of the s35 row.
They didn’t get a surge when the UK Internal Market Act passed and saw only a temporary one after their Supreme Court defeat. What about now?
And her government has decided that the best time to do all this is in the middle of the most serious energy crisis in decades.
The uniqueness of architecture that defines villages and towns has been replaced by concrete and stone chips. The variety of colours has been replaced by grey.
At the heart of the controversy lies the concerns of many women’s groups that a policy of self-ID of gender will leave women and girls vulnerable to males abusing the system to gain access to spaces reserved to females.
The UK’s equalities framework looks set to fragment because whilst the Equality Act is reserved, the Gender Recognition Act is not.
Basic services – the NHS, policing, schools, road maintenance, refuse collection, you name it – have gone to rack and ruin. Life expectancy has fallen sharply. We still have, to our shame, by far the worst drug death levels in Europe.