The Scottish Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has set Tuesday 19 October 2023 as the date for a new referendum to decide the independence of the United Kingdom, and although she has made it clear that she is “ready and ready” to negotiate with London, she has announced that the consultation will take place even if it is not approved.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, this was also said by the leader of the Scottish National Party The referendum bill would ask whether Scotland should be an independent country.
Scotland has already held a referendum on independence In 2014, “No” supporters won 55% of the votebecause they do not want to be excluded from the European Union (EU) if they secede from the United Kingdom, which at the time belonged to the European bloc.
But according to the SNP, this situation changed after Brexit, because the goal now is for Scotland to return to join the community bloc as an independent country.
But The UK government remains firm in its view that ‘now is not the time’. And that such a referendum can only be held once every 30 years. In this sense, Sturgeon said he was “ready and ready” to negotiate with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government over the terms of the consultations.
In addition, he said he would write to Johnson asking for his formal approval to hold the vote, but Make it clear that it will be a “legal” process and that it is not negotiablewhich means it will try to keep it even without the approval of the British government.
In this sense, the independence leader also indicated that she had a “democratic mandate” to conduct the vote, because parties that support independence, such as the Scottish National Party and the Green Party, have a majority in the Scottish Parliament.
“Honestly, The UK government is not in a position to give lectures to any other country about the necessity of respecting democratic norms if he is so bent on trying to thwart democracy in our country.”
He added that “the United Kingdom is either a consensual society or is not a society worthy of that name. The control of Westminster over Scotland cannot be based on anything other than a voluntary and consensual association.”
He said It’s time to ‘give people the democratic choice they voted for’Then, with independence, we build a more prosperous and just nation in a true partnership between Scotland and our friends in the rest of the United Kingdom.”
He announced that he had already asked the Lord’s Counsel, the chief Scottish Advocate of Justice, to ask the High Court whether Parliament in that region had the power to legislate a referendum on independence. It is up to the court to accept the application, but there is no date for the decision.
The Prime Minister added that She hopes the court can “provide clarity and legal certainty.” In due course” instead of going through a lengthy process and arguing that if Holyrood (Scottish Parliament) were judged to have no power to hold an election, the next general election would become a ‘de facto referendum’ in which the SNP would advance only the question of independence.
however, If the court rules in favor of the Scottish government, Sturgeon has indicated he will move quickly to pass a bill to make that happen.
A spokesman for the British prime minister, for his part, responded that the British government in any case was “carefully studying the details” of Sturgeon’s proposal, but said his opinion on the referendum had not changed.
“The priority for us and the Scottish Government must be to work together with a relentless focus on the issues we know are important. to people all over the country.”
“We will carefully consider the details of the proposal and the High Court will now consider whether to accept a referral from a Scottish Government solicitor,” he said.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders in the Scottish Parliament have urged Sturgeon to stop obsessing over another referendum and tackle the urgent problems facing the country.
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