The President of the United States telling elected politicians – or any other Americans for that matter – to ‘go back’ to other countries is not OK, … - Nicola Sturgeon

He looks to me as if he is somebody who has no real sense of principal or conviction or real view of what's right for the future for the country. His only objective throughout his entire adult life, it seems, has been to get into Number 10 and be prime minister. Now the focus is on him.

For years, Sturgeon’s personal power has masked any fissures in her party, leaving them unaddressed and widening. Her reliance on a tight circle of advisers, and the premium placed on loyalty from elected representatives, leaves her trapped in an echo chamber. With no possibility of an alternative party reaching government, the SNP is deprived of the democratic check of strong opposition. Charities and lobbyists, dependent on the party and the government for funding and contracts, tell Sturgeon what she wants to hear—even if public opinion is not with her. Inside the SNP, none of her ministers has anything approaching her public profile.

Independence is not about the isolationism that characterises Brexit.