With all of the fanfare and cacophony of trumpet blowing pro-Brexit media at extremely loud decibel volume makes it absolutely impossible to notice the elephant in the room, which is the historic tragedy that the union of the United Kingdom is in the process of breaking up. This essentially largely ignored fact is not being reported in the traditional media except in the most dismissive fashion except even if this level of coverage is made available. One may ask pray tell yes, yes do tell, is it being covered in the new media at least? The answer to that is a simple painful Google search away, the results of which seem to be some scant coverage of Scottish independence with very little if any substantial linkage of the effect of the Scottish independence movement on Brexit, with a second referendum being demanded by the Scottish National Party through its First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmLOMsMbEas
For to do so would be like raining on the ticker tape parade of the Conservative Tory Party's election win to get Brexit done campaign slogan of the newly minted rock star conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's victory parade, where he expects to go down in the history books as the man who got Brexit done! Or so goes the media narrative, which concurrently to reiterate ignores the elephant in the room which is that concurrently Boris Johnson can be expected to go down in history as the man who presided over the union of the United Kingdom breaking up by pushing Scotland out of the union along with Northern Ireland. At which point I will introduce you to plans being made of a bridge being built between Scotland and Northern Ireland. So that both nations with plans to stay in the EU will by some coincidence through this bridge mechanism be permanently connected in the future by land.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-brexit-deal-news-northern-ireland-bridge-uk-a9260551.html
If that isn't fantastic enough it seems that Boris Johnson has emboldened a separatist movement in Wales, but wait it gets worse if that is possible, because some northern English cities such as Manchester are now openly making noises about their wish to be included as part of Scotland, but of course all of this pales compared to the fact that he has set into motion the unstoppable juggernaut of the Scottish independence movement.
Whilst it was hoped that having had an independence referendum in 2014, the Scottish nationalists would have fallen asleep for a generation, but the fiery rhetoric of Boris Johnson and his Brexiteer ilk certainly woke them up by threatening to take Scotland out of the EU against its will. Where clearly in 2016 referendum Scotland voted by 62% to stay in the EU. Also a majority of the population in Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU as well. These smaller nations are now going to be ripped out of the EU against their will in what is suppose to be a union of equal nations.
The Scottish National Party seems to have won a clear mandate having received 80% of the electoral seats in Scotland for a total of 48 seats, whereas by contrast the Conservatives won 6 seats in Scotland, and the Liberal Democrats won 4 seats and Labour winning a total of 1 seat. Therefore can the question reasonably be posed with a 48 seat majority does the SNP have a mandate for Scottish independence already? Or should a further referendum be required or not?
While Boris Johnson claims he has a clear mandate in that he has a big majority in Parliament, to take the UK out of the EU, Nicola Sturgeon claims that as he lost in Scotland he has no mandate to take Scotland out of the EU. For this reason now calls for a second referendum for Scottish independence to be held next year. Wherein a question that must therefore be asked is if Scotland becomes an independent nation what happens to Brexit? Under the Lisbon Treaty Article 50 the United Kingdom has started the Brexit process as they did so the question is, who is entitled to progress or to withdraw Article 50, so as to progress or cancel Brexit? This of course is a very good question which has been asked by numerous people to include the SNP politician Christine Grahame, who is also a trained lawyer in a past Scotland Tonight interview under-reported and well forgotten, where she states cogently, quote:
“but if you look at this, you know the presumption being made here is in Scotland's independence the United Kingdom would just go on as before, as if it were the same legal entity. Of course it wouldn't. We would have the rump of the United Kingdom or the remainder of the United Kingdom. What would happen because Scotland is a nation and England is a nation, it is a voluntary arrangement with the union of the crown and the union of the Parliaments, these two nations would remain bound up by all the commitments by the first legal entity which was the United Kingdom, but the idea which is ridiculous is that Scotland becoming independent, the UK stays the same and just goes on. This is nonsense of course.”
“It is a fact please follow the logic, if Scotland does become independent it follows logically what remains is not the UK but something else, but the rump of the UK. So you have two parts, that were once whole and these two parts would have inherited the obligations, duties and the rights of the original whole. What is being missed in all of these arguments is the arrogance of the unionists that if Scotland becomes independent the UK remains the same.”
For the sake of completeness the remarks of Scottish politicians such as Christine Grahame and many others in relation to this issue, have been ignored for many months and even years. Therefore the question that must be asked is will Whitehall continue to ignore the will of the Scottish people as personified through their elected representatives for still more months and years in the future? If so the further question that must be asked is this why the Scottish people feel completely disconnected from Whitehall. So the only way forward for them comes unavoidably through an independence movement.
Whilst for Americans this controversial political matter may be of limited interest, what should however nonetheless be of substantial interest to us always is what is the state of democracy of America's allies. As Americans should we be struck by the fact while Boris Johnson says to Brussels let my people go. He says to Scotland no we will not let your people go in denying them the right to hold an independent referendum.
Finally it should be noted that Nicola Sturgeon along with her colleagues at the SNP are the only voices on the British Isles who have voiced their concerns with respect to EU nationals living on Scottish soil, who have had their lives turned upside down by Brexit.
These very same sympathies and concerns were shared by Mr Verhofstadt who remarked that:
“The Withdrawal Agreement struck between the UK and EU could be vetoed if the issue of citizens' rights is not fully resolved before the UK leaves the bloc.” “Everyone presumes the European Parliament will give automatically its consent to the Withdrawal Agreement. Not if the remaining problems with the citizens' rights are not solved first,” said Mr Verhofstadt, a former Belgian Prime Minister.
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/news/guy-verhofstadt-citizens%E2%80%99-rights-issues-must-be-resolved-brexit
At this point it is up to you as the reader to draw your own conclusions. Is Whitehall treating Scotland as an equal partner in what is a voluntary union of independent nations? Also is Whitehall treating EU citizens appropriately with respect to the citizenship rights that they have? The purpose of this article was to provide background and information from different sources, so as to empower you as the reader to provide an aid and informing your own opinion. That's a good note on which to end. Thank you for your attention to this important subject matter.
Best wishes to you in the New Year!
