Newspaper headlines: 'Referendum indy bin' and energy saving campaign

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon speaks at a pro-independence rally

A number of Thursday's papers report on the ruling by the Supreme Court that the Scottish government cannot hold another independence referendum without the consent of Westminster.

The Herald says the first minister has now rebranded the pro-independence campaign as "Scotland's democracy movement", while the Scotsman says her decision to make the next general election a de facto referendum is the "final roll of her political dice".

The National spoke to some of the pro-independence supporters who gathered outside the Scottish parliament yesterday, one of whom says: "The world knows now we are not in a union of equals".

The Times says Ms Sturgeon will now stake her political career on winning more than half of votes in Scotland at the next election while campaigning on the single issue of independence. The paper says the Scottish government will, in effect, declare independence by trying to start separation talks if more than 50% of voters back nationalist parties.

Writing in the Financial Times, lawyer and commentator David Allen Green argues that the Supreme Court's decision won't be disappointing for the SNP politically because it will bolster supporters of independence. He says they'll maintain that Scotland is locked into a supposedly "voluntary" union with no way out.

In other news, the paper says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces major challenges in managing his party, with morale among MPs low and many now privately accepting that the next election is already lost.

According to the i, the Tories aren't as mutinous as they were under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, but they are unhappy with the state of the economy and the prime minister's plan to fix it.

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The Daily Telegraph reports that family doctors failing to see patients face-to face will be named and shamed when the NHS publishes data on every GP surgery in England later today. The paper says the number of appointments taking place remotely rose during the Covid pandemic and that poor access to family doctors is increasing pressure on A&E departments.

Most the front pages also feature images of the German football team, who ahead of a match on Tuesday posed together with their hands over their mouths in an apparent protest at Fifa's decision to ban armbands supporting LGBT rights. The Daily Telegraph says the FA has instructed its legal team to look at whether Fifa can be challenged over the ban.

And following Germany's defeat by Japan, the Daily Star asks: "How do you spell schadenfreude?"