You will note Nicola Sturgeons careful words today "draft bill" not "bill". In otherwords come election time, it will still be a draft. With a positive ruling on the Section 30 case, there's nothing stopping them putting the bill through entirely with a section that...
...says something like. This act may be implemented using the process as defined by Schedule 1 attached (I'm using laymans language not the language you'd find in a bill). Then in Schedule 1 of the act having the conditions for it to be implemented:
For example "This bill shall be enacted if a majority of MSP's in favour of independence are elected in may 2021" (again laymans language).
In other words, a placeholder act, pre-prepared for immediate enactment when a majority of pro-independence MSPs are returned to Holyrood. But that's not what nicola said - she said "a draft bill". Which is the same as saying "manifesto pledge" or "mandate".
And so I choose to view her words with a little bit of scepticism.
They were asked for comment by the press at the same time as I was (I assume) and I hope that she's not just pulled a boris johnson tactic by mentioning indyref and making a promise she doesn't intend to keep in order to bury the times newspaper story this morning.
And if you wonder what I mean by that. Remember when Boris Johnson mentioned his hobby was to paint crates as big red london buses in order to bury the "red bus" "NHS" brexit promise in the news cycle?
Well, both sets of articles, the one on the people's action and her announcement of a referendum bill both include the same keywords - SNP, Scottish Government, Referendum, Independence, Indyref2.
I say this, because if that's what the SNP have just done, their own members will eat them alive for it!
