A PROMINENT political magazine has stated that a majority at the Holyrood elections in May would give the SNP “an unarguable mandate for a second independence referendum”.

In a leader published today, the New Statesman dismissed the idea that rising support for independence is “merely because of Brexit”, arguing that there are deeper forces at play.

It says that Thatcherism, austerity, Brexit and Boris Johnson “have been imposed on Scotland against its democratic will”, adding: “This is precisely why the almost 314-year old Union has never appeared more fractured.”

It says that the future of the Union will be a defining question of the next political decade.

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The London-based magazine argues that the SNP’s dominance of Scottish politics, in the ascendency since 2007, has turned it into a “truly national party, even a party state”.

It says Nicola Sturgeon’s party’s “aura of invincibility” has only ever been dented by Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader who will step down as an MSP in May in order to take a seat in the House of Lords.

Considering the options open to the Scottish people should they express a wish for a second independence referendum in the upcoming Holyrood elections, the New Statesman says the “strategy of obstinacy in London is ultimately unsustainable”.

“If the Union is to be meaningful it must rest upon consent, not coercion”, it argues.

The leader asks the SNP to address the difficulties around borders and currency which would arise after an independence vote, and says that the Yes movement has tried to “marginalise such questions”.

It compares the pro-independence camp to the Leave campaign, as it says that both argue that “sovereignty trumps prosperity”. “But the Scottish people deserve better than evasion and obfuscation,” it adds.

In arguing that the SNP “needs to explain what secession means”, the magazine echoes the Prime Minister in his recent visit to Scotland.

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While north of the Border, Johnson asked of Scottish independence: “What happens to the pound? What happens to the foreign service? What happens to the army? What happens to the Queen? What happens to our security services?”

The Prime Minister claimed that none of these questions “have been asked, or answered”.

The New Statesman was established in 1913, and counted eminent Nobel laureate, playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw among its founding directors.

According to the magazine, its website had “around 2 million unique visitors a month” through 2020.

You can read the full leader here.