DEBATE: Is Nicola Sturgeon overplaying her hand by demanding a Scottish independence referendum next year?

Is Nicola Sturgeon overplaying her hand by demanding a Scottish independence referendum next year?

Iain Anderson, executive chairman at Cicero Group, says YES.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired of endless elections and referendums? I think most of us are. So when I heard Scotland’s first minister say this weekend that the SNP plans to ask for a so-called #indyref2, my heart sank.

It is just five years since Scotland voted decisively to remain part of the UK. Brexit of course has mashed the debate up, but we can’t just keep voting every five minutes until one side or the other gets the answer it wants.

At a time when business faces the uncertainty of Brexit – when the economy across the UK has slowed – the last thing that the Scottish or the wider UK economy needs is yet more dislocation and disruption.

The main reason the independence campaign lost the argument in 2014 was on the economic future of Scotland. And voters were right to be worried; days after the 2014 vote global oil prices – a centrepiece of the independence argument – fell off a cliff.

Uncertainty then, uncertainty now. Until there are comprehensive answers to how Scotland could afford to fare outside the union, let’s not gamble on the future of Scotland, or the UK.

Tommy Sheppard, SNP MP for Edinburgh East, says NO.

Every day, more and more Scottish people are looking to independence as a route to escape the chaos that has engulfed Westminster.

There is a huge wave of momentum behind the case for Scottish independence – we have the mandate to hold a referendum with a majority of Scotland’s MPs and MSPs backing our right to choose. And poll after poll shows that voters in Scotland want to have their say.

Today, we are closer to achieving independence than ever before, and we should stick with the path set by Nicola Sturgeon. It is the right path, and ultimately it will be the successful one. No party has the right to stand in the way of democracy.

Scotland will have a choice over our future, sooner rather than later, and I have no doubt that when a second referendum is held, voters will grab the opportunity to secure our place as a progressive, independent European nation.

Main image credit: Getty