Can’t say I blame them now (I will be sad but can see why under the current environment), in fact could we move the Scottish border a little further south?
Maybe just annex all but SW1 to be part of an independent European nation…
Scotland starts renewed case for independence
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Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#12Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#13As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around: good luck to them. Brexit has shown very clearly that Scotland wants to chart a different path to England and IMO they should be allowed to do it. …just be generous to English folks seeking asylum from Tory rule, yeah?
As a Dutch and EU citizen I fully understand their motivation. I also regretted to see England leave the EU.
Will you feel the same way when the EU seeks the end of veto powers (as is currently happening)?
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/european-parliament-a...
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#14As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around: good luck to them. Brexit has shown very clearly that Scotland wants to chart a different path to England and IMO they should be allowed to do it. …just be generous to English folks seeking asylum from Tory rule, yeah?
> As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around
Not judging, I'm honestly curious why you didn't want them to be independent and thought that, "as a Brit" it was your position to have an opinion on Scotland's independence other than "whatever they want"?
Me, Australian living in England.
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#15It's one thing to push for independence itself to gain full sovereignty, though with the implication they'd join the EU right away they wouldn't have it for long, but don't pretend like it's somehow going to make Scotland "better".
But Scotland (and the rest of the UK) were better before leaving the EU. On the whole Scotish voters didn't want to leave the EU, to the point that it was one of the primary arguments that Boris used in the independence referendum, that if they left the UK they wouldn't necessarily have EU membership any more. Well they lost it anyways, so why shouldn't they chart their own path back?
I really hate the word sovereignty beign thrown around because in and of itself it doesn't mean anything. At least not in the way that Brexitiers use it.
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#16As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around: good luck to them. Brexit has shown very clearly that Scotland wants to chart a different path to England and IMO they should be allowed to do it. …just be generous to English folks seeking asylum from Tory rule, yeah?
Don’t most anti-Brexit arguments have direct anti-independence analogues?
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#17As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around: good luck to them. Brexit has shown very clearly that Scotland wants to chart a different path to England and IMO they should be allowed to do it. …just be generous to English folks seeking asylum from Tory rule, yeah?
For non-UK people:
There are four nations in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland).
But England has roughly 90% of the population of the UK. So what England votes for in an all-nations referendum, the rest of the UK gets.
England voted for Brexit by a narrow-ish majority. But Scotland voted against Brexit by a huge margin -- 62/38, or approximately 3:2.
Ironically, the year before the Brexit referendum there was a Scottish independence referendum where "remain part of the UK" won, 55/45. One of the promises the remain campaign made was that staying in the UK was the only way to guarantee Scotland could stay in the EU.
So there's a strong sense here in Scotland that we were misled, and presented with a bait-and-switch last time round.
Finally, Scotland has a very different political climate from England, with a much weaker far right, stronger far left, and a dominant centre left government. While since 2017, England has increasingly drifted towards the far right.
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#18As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around: good luck to them. Brexit has shown very clearly that Scotland wants to chart a different path to England and IMO they should be allowed to do it. …just be generous to English folks seeking asylum from Tory rule, yeah?
> As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around Not judging, I'm honestly curious why you didn't want them to be independent and thought that, "as a Brit" it was your position to have an opinion on Scotland's independence other than "whatever they want"? Me, Australian living in England.
Because fracturing your country and making it poorer and smaller probably isn’t desirable?
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#19I voted no last time round as I was not convinced on the economic side of things.
Truthfully I'm still not convinced but I'm finding it hard to justify staying on the sinking ship of the UK.
I'd rather fail as a country by our own decisions rather than the Scottish government always being able to point to Westminister for failure.
I wish more world wide economists took time to write arguments for/against Scottish independence as I find it hard to see the longer term plan.
Re: Scotland starts renewed case for independence
#20As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around: good luck to them. Brexit has shown very clearly that Scotland wants to chart a different path to England and IMO they should be allowed to do it. …just be generous to English folks seeking asylum from Tory rule, yeah?
> As a Brit that didn’t want Scotland to be independent last time around Not judging, I'm honestly curious why you didn't want them to be independent and thought that, "as a Brit" it was your position to have an opinion on Scotland's independence other than "whatever they want"? Me, Australian living in England.
I believed that the UK is better off as a united country. Not all that different from the logic for the UK staying in the EU: larger economic markets help everyone. A union of likeminded nations is better then isolation. I also have both English and Scottish relatives (one reason I consider myself a “Brit”) so you could say the concept plays into my self image.
> it was your position to have an opinion
I suppose I could have pretended that I didn’t have an opinion on it, but I did. The important part is that I didn’t have a vote so my opinion wasn’t anything other than my opinion.