Independence supporters march through the streets of Glasgow at the weekend AlamyThe Conservatives will block an independence referendum for up to 50 years even if Scots continue to back nationalist parties at the ballot box, a Scotland Office minister has declared. Douglas Ross, parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland, said the votes of the Scottish people and the Scottish parliament will not deliver independence. The Conservatives will hold the SNP to its pre-referendum pledge that a referendum was “once in a generation” regardless of any political developments over the next half century, he said. Mike Russell, the SNP’s constitutional relations secretary, said the “once-in-a-generation” pledge was a non-binding “rhetorical flourish” similar to Boris Johnson’s unfulfilled declaration that he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than extend Brexit beyond October 31, 2019. Britain has yet to…

Source: The Times January 15, 2020 12:00 UTC