The Will of the People

What is very clear is that the SNP/Green pact at Holyrood is not the will of the Scottish people.

Instead it's a convenient way of protecting ministers from votes of no confidence (Scotland's ghost ferries and the census debacle spring to mind) while cynically creating two non jobs in government for the Greens.

In 2014 there was an all party consensus about having a referendum - everyone agreed including the parties who planned to campaign to remain part of the UK.

2022 is very different - there is no all party agreement, all the opinion polls say Indyref2 is not a priority and, of course, at the 2021 Holyrood elections more people voted for parties which oppose a referendum at this stage.

If they could the SNP/Greens would ignore popular opinion and rely on a fleeting parliamentary majority at Holyrood to impose their will by a simple majority vote.

So the timing of a future referendum, the question (Remain vs Leave or Yes vs No) etc etc would all be decided by what best suited the SNP/Greens which would be unfair and autocratic.

Thankfully, the SNP/Green machine do not have the power to decide these important issues for themselves - they need agreement from the UK Government's to trigger another referendum and that will only happen when it's clear the Scottish people want it to happen.