Who knew Nicola Sturgeon was a devotee of Saint Augustine? Her message to the SNP conference yesterday was simple: Lord, grant me independence but not yet. And how the people cheered! The mere mention of independence was enough to send the nationalists into a state of millenarian rapture as they imagined the ecstasy to come.
Nothing else – not even the ritual pillorying of the hated Tories nor the now equally traditional concern trolling of Scottish Labour – excited Ms Sturgeon’s audience. Only the thought and prospect of independence brought them to their feet, a-whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ like the Highland Light Infantry on a payday night out.
But it will not be coming for a while. That was not what the conference delegates thought they heard as the First Minister announced a new independence ‘initiative’ to be launched ‘this summer’ but it was what they were told nonetheless. There are no plans for IndyRef2, at least not yet.
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