Nichola Sturgeons claim

[Horus]

Can Nichola Sturgeon legitimately claim she has a mandate for another Scottish referendum when the figures show that around 1.6 million Scots voted to remain in the EU, but over 2.0 million voted against Scottish Independence at the last vote when a UK referendum was known to be on the agenda, so according to her logic 1.6 million votes trumps 2.0 million votes, or am I misunderstanding this?

[Jayway]

Dear Horus, this woman is a politician, truth and fact are not her companions - -

[Kiya]

Oh please not again Nicola!

Now that we are out of the EU I'm happy to stay United Kingdom.

If it comes to referendum it will be NO Nicola

[Kiya]

I wonder if she is thinking of this......

It’s Bannockburn Day!
702 years ago on this day!
The birth of Scottish Independence
June 24, 1314—Battle of Bannockburn—Scotland won its independence from England. The army under King Robert I of Scotland defeated the army of England under King Edward II.

Robert de Bruce assembled his army of Scottish foot soldiers to the South of Stirling and formed them into 4 battalions commanded by himself, Thomas Randolph Earl of Moray, James Douglas and his brother Edward de Bruce. These battalions were given the name of ‘Schiltrons’. The King’s schiltron comprised men from his own estates in Carrick and the Western Highlands. The other schiltrons men from the estates of their commanders and their associates. Randolph led men from Ross and the North: Edward de Bruce led men from Buchan, Mar, Angus and Galloway: Douglas men from the Borders. The small force of mounted knights and men-at-arms was commanded by Sir Robert Keith, Marischal to the King of Scotland.

[Horus]

Maybe so Kiya, a proud moment for Scotland so I will not mention Culloden

[Kiya]

Yes the bloodiest battle of all & the last battle on British soil if my memory serves me right

[Horus]

And mainly Scots fighting Scots

[LovelyLadyLux]

Scotland recently had a referendum and ultimately voted to stay IN the UK. Now the UK has voted to leave the EU Scotland wants to vote to split from the UK so it can JOIN the EU (or what will be left of it shortly) - AND - all this before the dust has even settled!

[Horus]

LLL, you have to realise that Nicola Sturgeon is the current leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and their Raison d'être is to have an independent Scotland, to that end she will use any method she can to obtain that goal. In the last referendum on this the people of Scotland voted to remain, but similar to the recent UK Brexit vote the losing side (the SNP) is never satisfied with the result and trying to change it.

[Mad Dilys]

Is it just me, or is Ms Sturgeon suffering from delusions of grandeur?

Independence is all very well, but look at the book-keeping. With the present resident population, (a great many Scots are working/living outside the country), the present balance of trade and economy can they actually operate as an independent country? I think not.

[Horus]

Is it just me, or is Ms Sturgeon suffering from delusions of grandeur?

Independence is all very well, but look at the book-keeping. With the present resident population, (a great many Scots are working/living outside the country), the present balance of trade and economy can they actually operate as an independent country? I think not.

I would agree entirely and having previously expressed my own view that I along with most other English voters really don't care anymore what she does. I hope she gets on with it and we may as well have all the disruption and uncertainty in one go. As for what it will mean for Scotland, well I still think it will be a bad move economically, the price of oil is disastrously low and had she succeeded last time I think that Scotland would now be bankrupt. She is always saying how much Scotland contributes to the UK and how well they would do on their own away from the UK, but she constantly forgets that it is a two way deal, sometimes you put in and sometimes you take out and in the main Scotland has taken out. Many people in England especially are not happy about the disproportionate amount of money per capita given to Scotland compared to say England and as such would be happy to see Scotland go. I have always thought that we get on rather well together and apart from 'National' pride (nothing wrong with that) we were for all intents and purposes one nation, but obviously a large proportion of Scots do not feel the same if her current popularity is to be believed. So I think that a bit like the EU was surprised that we did not want to be their best friend that the people of the rest of the UK were equally surprised that the Scots felt the same way about us.

At the moment she is grandstanding due to all the attention that various factions who are opposing the Brexit decision are getting on international news coverage. She has failed to get the power and control she had expected in Westminster should there have been a hung parliament at the last election, so sees this a s a good opportunity to raise her profile again. She is very canny and will not want to actually call for another vote to leave the UK at this actual point in time as she knows she will probably lose and if she does then that will put the independence debate on the back burner for more than a generation, so she will not risk that. Instead she will pose the future threat of a referendum in the hope that at a time of her choosing she can call another vote and win, however events may actually overtake her and she may be forced to commit to it sooner than she wanted and it is that scenario that could be her downfall.

What I find rather strange is that she wants independence from the UK, then wants to be part of an even more controlling state of the EU. That she wants to be in the EU but still wants to keep the £ sterling as Scotland's currency when that would mean total monetary control by the UK as it is after all 'The Bank of England' and not Scotland. It would also require us to have a border control of some sort if they were to embrace 'freedom of movement' otherwise we may not have bothered to leave the EU in the first place and a border would impact on Scotland more so than England. Then we have all of the many insurance companies that are currently based in Scotland that would have no choice but to move back South as that is where their main customer base lies, folly all round IMO.

[Grandad]

Another fly in the ointment is the potential General Election some time after the Tory conference early in October. A new PM would almost certainly have to go to the country before the job of leaving the EU commences. There may be no guarantee that the Tories would get back with a majority, particularly If Johnson gets his wish to be leader, another 'posh boy' so more of the same???

It seems quite likely that Labour will have a leadership contest if the 'No Confidence' lobby gathers pace. And if Labour won an election and if there was a resurgence of Scottish Labour MP's that would also confuse Mrs Sturgeons aims.

It is all becoming a very complicated mix, let alone the complexities of negotiating our exit...

[Horus]

I agree Grandad and isn't it nice to be able to sit back and say I couldn't really care less what happens next as I doubt it will impact on me very much either way. And isn't that the crux of what has just happened in the referendum? whereas a certain section of the country, mainly Southern white middle class, have become more affluent and prospered in a disproportional way to the rest of the country who have actually seen very little improvement in their own circumstances and therefore felt that they actually had nothing to lose by voting to leave in the way they did and to be fair that is probably very true in most cases.