Sturgeon’s law tutor: Nicola hasn’t grasped ‘democracy’

NICOLA STURGEON’S former law professor has criticised her “simply nuts” plan to use the next general election as a “de facto” independence referendum as he lamented his ex-student’s “failure to grasp what democracy [means].”

Alistair Bonnington said the First Minister’s attempt to restrict the election to the single issue of breaking up the UK did not “deserve a moment’s consideration” and “flies in the face of democratic elections”.

Mr Bonnginton, who was one of Ms Sturgeon’s lecturers when she studied law at Glasgow University, also criticised her “extraordinary claim” that the Union between England and Scotland was no longer voluntary. Writing for the Scottish Legal News after this week’s Supreme Court ruling that Ms Sturgeon did not have the power to stage her own separation vote, he said she was complaining because “our law won’t allow her to keep holding referendums as regularly as she wants”.

Mr Bonnington added: “I fear we must accept our failure to teach our student Nicola Sturgeon much about democracy.”

His intervention came as the First Minister argued that the Supreme Court ruling would help the nationalists “reach out as never before to those not yet persuaded”.

But SNP insiders expressed fears that it was the First Minister who had committed a major “strategic blunder”by asking the court for a ruling on whether she had the power to stage another vote.