Nicola Sturgeon “exploring all options.” Here are Scotland’s four options

Another day, another pronouncement from Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in which she puts on her “this is serious” face on and says that she is “exploring all options” in relation to Brexit and the possibility of a second independence referendum.

This process of “exploration” seems mainly to involve indulging the feverish fantasies of those Nationalists who think that Scotland can have everything, which is EU membership and (for the moment) membership of the UK, what with Scotland having voted as recently as 2014 to remain part of the United Kingdom.

The truth is that the earth is round, not flat. You can’t always get what you want. Scotland cannot stay in the EU while staying in the UK. There are only four options available. Here they are:

Option 1: Stay in the UK, which is leaving the EU. Sure, argue for a “soft Brexit” compromise – as quite a few Leavers and moderate Remainers are – in which the UK is a member of the European Economic Area and outside the EU. But accept ultimately that the UK is a state (which Scotland is in) and that the eventual Brexit settlement will be UK-wide.

Option 2: Hold another Scottish independence referendum. Win it (not easy when one considers what follows). Leave the UK‎. Establish a separate, new Scottish currency – meaning doing business in a different currency from the country, England, where 60% of Scottish exports go. Adjust to the loss of the Barnett Formula. Prepare to make financial contributions to the EU.

Option 3: First Minister to carry on making speeches saying ‎she is “exploring all options,” but this approach carries a fair to middling risk of making the SNP a laughing stock as eventually surely everyone bar the most gullible will work out that “exploring all options” is code for trying to delay facing up to making a choice between option 1 and option 2.

Option 4: First Minister to have a holiday, like the rest of Britain.

These are the options. No hurry, SNP.