The Scots are owed a further referendum ...

 . . . but they should still vote "no".

One suspects that the reason for Nicola Sturgeon's declaration today has as much to do with keeping the SNP in power in Holyrood and protecting her MPs as a genuine belief in the viability of an independent Scotland. However, the ground has shifted since the first independence referendum of 2014. That was conducted on the basis that the UK would remain in the EU. Indeed, a major argument - something that English unionists conveniently forget in the current debate - was that Scotland would be excluded from the EU if she became independent. The legal advice from EU bodies was that an independent Scotland would not be allowed to "inherit" membership but would have to apply to join. Spain for one, wary of encouraging splits from her own provinces, gave a clear indication that she would veto Scottish membership. Scotland clearly benefited more than England from EU membership and recognised the fact, as was shown in the later Brexit referendum, so it is a fair assumption that the danger of EU exclusion swung the 2014 vote against independence. For a long time, opinion soundings had shown that the decision was on a knife-edge, before the EU issue gained prominence.

Scottish voters were not to know that Tory machinations were already under way to achieve Brexit. So a second referendum where the ground rules are known is surely just. However, unless there is a clear indication from the EU that a Scottish application would be welcome, I suggest that Scots had better work with the devil that they know instead of the deep blue sea that they do not. The Scottish economy is in deficit and even if it could once rely on oil production to support it - which was debatable even at the time that independence was first mooted - it cannot now. The UK as a whole, member of the G7, is trusted to borrow at prevailing rates. Scotland almost certainly will not. EU contributor nations like France and Germany will not be happy to accept another debtor nation and one can expect Spain's resistance to continue.