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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.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 25 2016, @03:22PM
But I feel qualified to talk about this. At least to an American :P
Ach, you'll be needing pictures then... :)
Scotland itself has traditionally been divided between the "Lowland Scots" and the "Highland Scots". The latter view the former as ancient traitors who often take the side of the English at the drop of a hat. North of Edinburgh many Scots still retain their Gaelic speech, although all speak English usually with a heavy accent.
Not quite correct, it's a lot more nuanced than that, for example, to a "Highland Scot" (native Gaelic speaker, Gael, aka Teuchter) I'm a "Lowland Scot" (no Gaelic).
However, my family are of highland extraction, moved to the central belt several generations ago, and lost the Gaelic, so, to me, a Lowlander is from a bit further south than my location, but not so far south that it makes them from the Borders..them's a mad, bad, cursed [hiskingdomprophecy.com] lot.
To the direct North of Edinburgh, you have the Fifers, for your amusement, see this [thecourier.co.uk] regarding Gaelic in Fife, so, not really Gaels.. they're more to be found in the West-North West.
Let's not forget the general East Coast-West Coast divide, the North East-South East divide, the Fife-Rest of the universe divide, the Broughty Ferry (centre of, and all of the known Universe) or the Anglo-Saxon enclaves of the south east, the Norse nature of some of the Western Isles, Orkney and the Shetlands, though they're not as Norse as they'd like to think, an an example re the Orkneys, see here [bbc.co.uk]..and again, have a look at this [scotsman.com], the whole thing is quite an interesting mess, depending on how 'granular' you want to be, I could be here all night...
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Saturday June 25 2016, @04:04PM
Oh, and Glasgow, which is all alone :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 25 2016, @05:54PM
Oh, and Glasgow, which is all alone :)
Ah, we do not talk about the 'G' place...like the 'E' place on the other coast we ignore them in the hope that one day they Oozlum..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 25 2016, @06:36PM
There's a reason it was called auld reekie...