You might believe it's opportunistic and that's a separate argument with its own merits, but surely you can't believe nobody saw this coming. Because you have,

You might believe it's opportunistic and that's a separate argument with its own merits, but surely you can't believe nobody saw this coming. Because you have, to be fair, missed out the bit where she said "or a material change in circumstances" over, and over, and over again whilst on the Holyrood campaign trail - and it was widely understood that she meant Brexit at the time. There simply is not an SNP or Green voter in this country who did not know that today's vote would take place in the event of Brexit and that their respective candidate would vote for it. It's not credible to claim otherwise. Therefore the mandate exists, as per the rules of parliamentary democracy.