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Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is seeking another vote on Scottish independence, coming possibly as soon as late 2018:
In a bombshell announcement Monday, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh that she will seek the authority to hold a second independence referendum for Scotland. Citing a "brick wall of intransigence" from British Prime Minister Theresa May, Sturgeon asserted that the only way to preserve Scottish interests in the midst of the U.K. exit from the European Union is to put matters directly in the hands of Scottish voters.
"What Scotland deserves, in the light of the material change of circumstances brought about by the Brexit vote, is the chance to decide our future in a fair, free and democratic way — and at a time when we are equipped with the facts we need," the Scottish first minister and head of the Scottish National Party said in prepared remarks. "Whatever path we take, it should be one decided by us, not for us."
Next week, she will seek a section 30 order from the Scottish Parliament to begin the referendum process — which the U.K. Parliament in Westminster ultimately must approve. If all goes as planned, Sturgeon expects that a vote would be held in the fall of 2018 or spring of 2019, after terms of a Brexit deal worked out by the U.K. and the EU become clear.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @05:53PM (1 child)
All democracies should in light of new evidence.
The propaganda against Brexit was absurd essentially suggesting that if it passes it would be the end of the world. Yet once it passed very little changed. Well actually the stock market soared to record highs. In any case, none of the doomsday predictions came to be. Its clear that the side pushing fear and terror was simply lying. That is a major game changer. In many ways I think its analagous to Trump in the US. Though some are still left in the the-world-is-ending phase which is being propelled mostly thanks to our click-bait media, I think most are starting to settle down to realize nothing of the sort is happening. Stocks are up, jobs are up, he terminated the potentially catastrophic TPP trade deal, and is generally doing a pretty decent job. I think hyperbole against him, past and present, is something that's going to end up seriously hurting the democratic party's chances in 2020. People don't like being afraid, people don't like being lied to, and people really don't like being lied to in an attempt to make them afraid. I think this is a lesson that establishment politicians are slow to learn since people have been buying "THREAT LEVEL ORANGE" for so long that they came to take the success of these sort of manipulative tactics for granted.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pTamok on Tuesday March 14 2017, @07:27PM
Hmm. Lets look at exchange rates and stock markets for a moment, shall we?
Sterling Effective Exchange Rate Index (the 'Trade weighted index, with Jan 2005=100) (XUDLBK67 on Bank of England website)
23 Jun 2016: 87.9268
13 Mar 2017: 76.1837 (down 13.4%)
FTSE 100 - from London Stock Exchange website
23 June 2016: 6338.1
13 Mar 2017: 7367.08 (up 16.2%)
FTSE 250 - from London Stock Exchange website
23 June 2016: 17333.51
13 Mar 2017: 19029.17 (up 9.8%)
The trade weighted Sterling index measures the Pound Sterling's value against a basket of currencies, weighted by how much trade the UK does with each currency block in question.
The FTSE 100 has a significant number of companies that generate most of their income overseas, whereas the FTSE 250 is mostly UK companies.
You would expect a fall in the value of the pound to be beneficial to the FTSE 100, but the rise in the FTSE 250 has not compensated for the drop in the value of sterling. In other words, since the Brexit vote, things have not been rosy for UK companies. there is a slight problem too that while employment has increased, productivity per capita has not. This is bad, and means that real wages have, at best, stagnated, and have likely dropped.