[hibeejim21]

"IMO the SNP would not have sided with the Tories to call a Xmas General Election if the Labour Party was not "on board". "


Not so.

As soon as the prospect of a GNU went (thanks to swinson) both the lib dems and SNP opted for an election before labour. This was problematic as starmer wanted more time to analyse the withdrawal agreement and the PLP were definitely not keen but corbyn was left with nowhere else to go. There are loads of things to blame him for,but this isn't one of them.

Sturgeon played it smart as she usually does. No way would she have wanted the prospect of a confirmatory referendum down south before an independence one in Scotland, it would have made her look stupid if the UK had voted to remain. So in my opinion she (and swinson) pushed the button knowing labour were 10 pts behind and in with no chance. The lib dems hoped to gain more of the labour remain vote but in the end the opposite happened - a testament to her crap leadership.

Also it made sense to get the election out the way before the salmond publicity hits the fan, and believe me certain figures in the SNP do not come out of this looking good.