‘Current and important topic’ – these are the words that Scotland’s most prominent common law officials have asked the UK Supreme Court to comment on the new referendum on Scottish independence. The two parts of the country along with Wales and Northern Ireland comprise the United Kingdom, but the member states have been granted some degree of self-government over the past 30 years.
The Scottish National Party, which leads Scottish self-government due to its local parliamentary majority, has been pushing for a new roll-call vote for independence for years, in part because
The majority of Scots did not vote for Britain to leave the European Union, while the English did.
Dorothy Payne, Scotland’s first female lawyer, said voters tend to elect local MPs who support independence. So, he told the British High Court, Westminster in Scotland, this is
A referendum on the matter must be allowed without the consent of the British Parliament.
“This is a matter that I am asking the Court to resolve once and for all (…) It is of great public concern to the people of Scotland and the people of the United Kingdom.”
In recent years, three successive Conservative British Prime Ministers refused to allow a second independence referendum after the Scottish National Party lost the first in 2014. The argument is that under the 1998 Act that created the Scottish Parliament, only Westminster has the legal authority to approve such This poll.
Bean says that the proposed referendum is advisory in nature, and since its results would not be binding on the UK government,
It will essentially be a government-run ballot.
Five judges, led by Lord Reed, one of two Scottish High Court judges, will now hear arguments from Payne’s lawyer and the British government on the case. Their final decision will have huge implications for Nicola Sturgeon’s nationalist government in Edinburgh and for the future of the United Kingdom.
If the court rules that the Scottish Parliament can legally hold a referendum on independence – which Sturgeon wants to do on 19 October 2023 – then Prime Minister Liz Truss will face the realistic prospect of being in government when the UK secedes.
If the court rules against sturgeon, it is expected to put Scotland’s independence at the center of the upcoming British parliamentary elections, arguing that Scotland has an inalienable right to decide its own future. According to opinion polls, a majority of Scottish voters support this argument more than independence itself.
Opening image: MTI/EPA/Robert Perry
