Sir John Curtice said there was a clear lack of support for an independence vote this year REUTERSBritain’s leading polling expert has questioned the SNP’s claim to have a mandate for a second independence referendum this year. Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said that polls had shown no appetite for further constitutional upheaval any time soon. Writing on the What Scotland Thinks blog, Sir John describes as dubious the party’s mandate to hold another vote because of the “material change” caused by Brexit and last month’s general election in which it won 80 per cent of Scotland’s seats. He wrote: “Inferring people’s attitudes towards a specific policy proposal on the basis of the outcome of an election is always a highly dubious exercise. “References to seats won ignores the potentially distorting effect of the way in which the…

Source: The Times January 18, 2020 00:06 UTC