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Scotland's Calm Stroll to Independence

posted by martyb on Saturday June 25 2016, @12:29PM   
from the separate-so-as-to-stay-in? dept.

n1 writes:

Scottish nationals have two supra-national citizenships. One is UK citizenship, the second is EU citizenship. In democratic referenda over the past two years, Scots have voted clearly to retain both citizenships.

Unfortunately it is not possible to respect both democratic decisions of the Scottish people, due to a vote by other nationalities. So where you have democratic decisions which cannot both be implemented, which does democracy demand should take precedence?

It is not a simple question. The vote to retain EU citizenship was more recent and carried a much larger majority than the earlier vote. In addition it was made crystal clear during the campaign that it may require the overturning of the earlier vote. So on these grounds I believe the most recent vote must, as an exercise in democracy, have precedence.

In these circumstances the announcement by the First Minister that she is initiating the procedure on a new referendum for Scottish independence from the UK, in order to retain Scottish membership of the EU, is a sensible step.

Source: Craig Murray

Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.

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Original Submission

• Re:A bit early to say, don't you think? (Score: 5, Informative) by zocalo on Saturday June 25 2016, @02:08PM

  by zocalo (302) on Saturday June 25 2016, @02:08PM (#365573)

  I *am* British, voted "Remain", and think it's too early to say how this is going to pan out. Yes, the markets are in turmoil, no one seems to be sure what happens next or when, there are a lot of people who are upset, angry, confused, and a whole range of other emotions, and jobs are already being lost in the UK in their thousands - mostly in situations where the EU requires that staff be based within an EU country, e.g. for banking and work on major EU infrastructure projects. All of that is to be expected at this point, and should be no surprise to anyone with a little common sense who bothered to do a little fact checking and paid attention to what people on both sides were saying instead of jumping head first into an echo chamber for their preferred point of view.
  
  How long do we need to give it? No one really knows! Maybe parts of the picture will start to become clear in a week, maybe it'll be a month, maybe it'll be nearer October when the new UK government is in place and (presumably) Article 50 is in progress, or maybe it'll be years before things really settle down - when the exit process finally completes or beyond. If there is a major recession, whether for the UK, EU or globally, then it could easily be a decade or more before things get onto an even keel. Some things appear likely to settle down fairly quickly, others are going to take a little longer, and others have no chance of resolution before the exit process is complete and a fully autonomous UK government and economy gets to start playing without the EU's oversight and constraints. Which things fall into which time range, however...

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  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

  Parent

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