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Scotland’s Sturgeon to seek second independence referendum

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independanceFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence, saying Scotland should be able to make this choice “before the UK leaves the EU.” Scots had voted to stay.

Opening the Scottish National Party conference in Glasgow, Nicola Sturgeon said she would take the first step towards a second independence referendum for Scotland next week.

“I can confirm that the Independence Referendum Bill will be published for consultation next week,” Sturgeon told delegates. She argued that in the event of a “hard Brexit” – particularly the UK leaving the EU without retaining access to the single market – then Scotland “will have the right to decide, afresh, if it wants to take a different path.”

Sturgeon even quoted the British Conservative Party’s election manifesto for 2015, which had stated: “We say yes to the single market.”

Despite being careful not to set a desired date for the vote, at one point saying “whenever that might be,” Sturgeon did say the decision should fall prior to the UK leaving the EU. That timeline remains very muddy, but as it stands, British Prime Minister Theresa May intends to trigger an exit process – slated to last two years – early in 2017.

‘A case we will win’

In 2014, 55 percent of Scottish residents voted to stay a part of the United Kingdom; back then, independence supporters were warned that leaving London would mean an EU exit.

Sturgeon said that she believed the UK’s even narrower 52 percent vote to leave the EU – when more than 60 percent of Scots voted to stay – had changed the landscape.

In the event of a hard Brexit, Sturgeon said that the choice at a second independence referendum would pit “an inward-looking, insular, Brexit Britain, governed by a right-wing Tory party obsessed with borders and blue passports at the expense of economic strength and stability” against “a progressive, outward-looking, internationalist Scotland, able to chart our own course and build our own security and prosperity.”

“That is a case we will win,” Sturgeon told the audience in Glasgow, the city she represents in the Scottish parliament and – as the nationalist herself noted – a city that had voted to split with the UK the first time around in 2014.

Collision course with May

The Conservatives’ party conference last week raised the specter of a clean break with the EU and its single market. There, PM Theresa May made her clearest comments yet on what sort of a Brexit she envisaged, saying she would not accept free movement of people as a condition for continued single market membership.

At least as it stands, Brussels’ stance is that free trade and movement are inextricably linked.

The markets have also responded to May’s comments, with the pound crashing on Wednesday to its lowest level ever against the US dollar. Against the euro, itself not as strong as the dollar in recent months and years, the pound is falling fast, but not to record lows. A potential absence of breakfast spread Marmite in supermarket chain Tesco – as British-Dutch manufacturer Unilever seeks a higher shelf price to reflect the weakness of the pound – served as an early warning of the crash’s effects for consumers.

South of the border on Thursday, a legal challenge to Theresa May’s right to start negotiations on leaving the EU without first winning parliamentary approval opened in the country’s High Court. A verdict was expected by Monday.

May and Sturgeon have held talks since the referendum, and the head of the Scottish government addressed the Conservative directly during the key part of her speech mooting a second referendum.

“In 2014, you told us Scotland was an equal partner in the UK. Well, the moment has come to prove it. If you value the UK – as you say you do – it’s up to you to prove it can work for Scotland,” Sturgeon said, nominally addressing May. “The ball is in your court. But hear this – if you think for one single second that I’m not serious about doing what it takes to protect Scotland’s interests, then think again.”

Agriculture Scotland to ban GMO genetically modified crops

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0,,15684392_303,00Scotland’s government says it plans to ban the cultivation of genetically modified crops. While widely grown in the Americas and Asia, there is more skepticism over the practice in Europe.

Scotland’s Environment Ministry announced Sunday it intended to ban the growth of genetically modified crops on its territory in order to cultivate its “clean and green brand” of products.

No GM crops are currently grown commercially in Britain, though the central government in London says it supports the use of GM crops if they are safe.

Richard Lochhead, the Scottish government’s minister for the environment, food and rural affairs, said Sunday he planned to take advantage of new European Union rules allowing countries to opt out of growing EU-authorized GM crops.

“The Scottish government will shortly submit a request that Scotland is excluded from any European consents for the cultivation of GM crops, including the variety of genetically modified maize already approved and six other GM crops that are awaiting authorization,” Lochhead said in a statement.

The minister said there is no domestic market for GM crops and it wanted to strengthen its brand of exports, especially its food and drink sector worth an annual 19.78 billion euros ($21.7 billion).

“Scotland is known around the world for our beautiful natural environment – and banning growing genetically modified crops will protect and further enhance our clean, green status,” Lochhead said.

Health debate

GM crops are the subject of global debate, with some environmental and health groups questioning their environmental impact. Producers, however, insist they are safe.

The Scottish government in Edinburgh has been responsible for mainly domestic policies, including agriculture, since 1999 when power was devolved from the central government in London.

jar/cmk (Reuters, AFP)

Source: dw.com

#TakeUsWithYouScotland: 1000s in N. England sign petition to join ‘future independent Scotland’

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independent-ScotlandOver 35,000 people from northern England have signed a petition, asking to join future independent Scotland and sever from London. It says ‘the northerners’ have more bonds with Scotland than with “the ideologies of the London-centric south.”

“The deliberations in Westminster are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the north of England,” says an online petition to the UK Government on change.org website.

The document dubbed: ‘Allow the north of England to secede from the UK and join Scotland’ has been signed by almost 35,000 people.

“The northern cities feel far greater affinity with their Scottish counterparts such as Glasgow and Edinburgh than with the ideologies of the London-centric south,” the petition says. Hashtag #TakeUsWithYouScotland that appeared a week ago has been retweeted more than 25,000 times.


The document states the north of England “should join the newly independent Scotland and regain control over its own destiny.

“We, the people of the north, demand that in the event that Scotland becomes independent the border between England and the New Scotland be drawn along a line that runs between the River Dee and the mouth of The Humber.”

Source: RT

Video Why did Scotland’s referendum fail?

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CrossTalking with Chris Bambery and David Coburn.

Why did Scotland’s referendum fail? Would the establishment ever allow an independent Scotland? Is this the last time we will see a vote for independence in Scotland? Was the result of the referendum considered a success for the Scottish? Did this referendum pave the way for others – for example Catalonia?

http://youtu.be/UjIna98jshQ

Karabakh Foreign Ministry welcomes referendum on Scotland independence

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on-scotlandSTEPANAKERT. – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh) welcomes the holding of a referendum on the independence of Scotland.

Irrespective of the results, the referendum in Scotland is one more precedent enriching the world practice of realization of the right of peoples to self-determination and confirming once again the obvious fact that the recognition of the right of peoples to decide their own fate is a norm in a democratic society, the NKR Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“In this connection, we consider it necessary to remind that it was the breach of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh by Azerbaijan that led to the mass violations of human rights and deportation of the Armenian population of Azerbaijan, followed by the full-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against the NKR, as a result of which tens of thousands of people were killed, and hundreds of thousands became refugees.

The international recognition of the will of the people of Artsakh, realized in 1991 and affirmed in 2006, will ensure the irreversibility of the peaceful process and will allow focusing efforts on elaborating the necessary mechanisms and conditions for peaceful co-existence of two independent states – the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan that emerged as a result of the collapse of the USSR and the war imposed by Azerbaijan”.

As reported earlier, 55.3 percent of the Scottish voters rejected independence and voted for being a part of the UK.

Scot-Free-No Scots vote ‘no’ in independence referendum

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Scotland stepped back from the brink of ending the 307-year-old union with England and Wales and was on track to remain part of the United Kingdom by a comfortable scot-free-nomargin, the Guardian reports.

With more than half of Scotland’s local authorities having declared including the major cities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, an estimated 55% of voters were expected to reject the prospectus for independence.

But the yes campaign scored a handful of notable successes, succeeding in the largest city of Glasgow by 53% to 47%, winning 54% in West Dunbartonshire and a convincing 57% win in Dundee.

Prime Minister David Cameron and the Queen will both move to calm tensions when they deliver statements on Friday. The prime minister will seek early in the day, in the words of one cabinet minister, to “cement in” the no vote by outlining how he will deliver the deepening of Scotland’s devolution settlement, the Guardian says.

The Queen, who has monitored the referendum with interest, will make a written statement on Friday afternoon. It is understood that her remarks will focus on reconciliation.

Labor’s exit polling in 30 out of Scotland’s 32 councils suggested they were on course to win by 55% to 45% – a finding that the early results appeared to confirm.

Some 4,283,392 people had registered to vote in the busiest day in Scottish electoral history. Across the board turnouts were high, often well over 80%, although it dropped to 75% in Glasgow.

BREAKING NEWS: Scotland Rejects Independence From Britain, BBC Projects

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Friday, September 19, 2014 12:27 AM EDT

scotland-flag-plaetivy.com_Alarmed by the uncertainties of going it alone, and lured by the promise of greater autonomy if they stayed put, voters in Scotland rejected independence from Britain in a referendum that had threatened to break up a 307-year union, according to projections by the BBC on Friday.
The outcome was a deep disappointment to the vocal, enthusiastic pro-independence movement led by the Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, who had seen an opportunity to turn a centuries-old nationalist dream into reality, and forced the three main British parties into panicked promises to grant substantial new power to the Scottish Parliament.
The decision spared Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain a shattering defeat that would have raised questions about his ability to continue in office and diminished his nation’s standing in the world.

If we vote Yes future generations will thank us for proud and caring Scotland in which they live, says Kenyon Wright

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By Scotland Now

ONE of the architects of Scottish devolution KENYON WRIGHT says a Yes vote on Thursday will deliver a brighter future for generations to come in Scotland.

Canon Kenyon Wright

yesDEAR citizens of Scotland, we stand at a crossroads of history and the way we choose to take will shape the lives of all of us for generations to come.

Whichever road we take, we can be proud of the way the whole nation has been set alight.

People who in the past saw no point in voting have become deeply and intelligently involved in the debate. Scotland as a nation has awakened – and I do not think we will go back to sleep.

Why is this? A taxi driver in Edinburgh gave me the answer: “We are alive. For the first time, people really believe it is they who decide.”

Whatever we decide, we must forge a new unity in our beloved Scotland and not lose the unbelievable energy and commitment that has been built up these last months.

I have no right to tell you what to do on Thursday but maybe from my own experience I might be able to clarify what this is all about and help some of those who are still confused by the conflicting messages we receive every day.

I am not a politician. I am not a member of any party. I am a patriot but not a nationalist.

I say “Yes” and I ask you to hear my reasons and make your own decision, if you have not already done so.

The debate seems to have centred on two areas – the economy and power.

The Economy

ON this, confusion is understandable, for we have credible voices on both sides.

The No campaign from the start had “Project Fear”, telling us how poor, weak, friendless and alone Scotland would be.

In these last days, the message of fear has come back with a vengeance, as the Prime Minister and the Government have openly pressurised and cajoled big business to make the message as gloomy as possible. They promised us daily doses of “shock and awe”. It has certainly been shocking and awful.

On the Yes side, Business for Scotland, with thousands of business people in companies large and small, tell us Scotland is one of the richest countries in the world and would thrive as an independent nation.

The confusion boils down to your answer to a single question: “Who do you trust?”

Power

BEHIND the economic questions lies one even more important. Simply, who controls and decides? Where is the power to make the decisions that affect our lives – in Westminster or in Scotland?

After blackmail – “Be naughty and vote Yes and you will suffer” – we now have bribery: “Be good and vote No and we’ll give you your reward.”

The promise of more devolution is an illusion. Firstly, if our past experience is anything to go by, promises made in the heat of the debate may never be kept – especially as polls in England show strong opposition to giving anything away to Scotland.

Secondly, devolution – even the Maxiest and most accelerated – leaves real power at Westminster. Don’t forget that, in the British system, nothing is irreversible.

Any powers “given” by London can be undermined or even taken away at the whim of any future government.

Devolution will not protect our public services, and especially the NHS, from cuts in Scotland’s
finances imposed by Westminster’s austerity policies.

Devolution is power by the gift of others. Power in Scotland is ours by right.

In brief, there is one single central question which I believe every Scot should ask when voting. It is this: “Where should the final power over Scotland’s affairs lie – with Westminster or with the people of Scotland?”

Consider this as a possible – maybe even probable – scenario if we say No.

It is four years ahead. Scotland has been dragged out of Europe by a Conservative-UKIP coalition, led by Boris Johnson – who has openly opposed any further devolution – and UK government cuts to Scotland’s finances have begun to undermine our social services and NHS.

Scotland needs not devolution but the power and right to make our own decisions.

We will make mistakes but they will be our mistakes instead of the mistakes of others, forced upon us by governments we did not elect, with policies we rejected.

The Choice

IF you vote No, I ask you to consider not just what you are voting against – Scotland’s right to control our own destiny – but also what you would be voting for.

To vote No is to vote for the system that allowed Maggie to impose the poll tax and much else. The system that allowed Tony to take us to war based on lies. The system that allowed Cameron to dictate there would be no second question for a middle way on the voting paper. The system that has so often been used against us and, sooner or later, will be again.

Is that what you want?

If you vote Yes, you are saying you believe Scotland can do it, is able to prosper and take its place among the nations. Cameron is right. There is no way back. But there are plenty of ways forward.

Independence, yes, but I prefer to call it Interdependence, since a new Scotland would, I am sure, enter into better relationships with our neighbours in these islands and in Europe, based on meeting face to face as equals.

Independence is a means, not an end. To support an independent Scotland is to say Yes to a nation with a social agenda, committed to justice and the welfare of those in need, and of all our children; a nation in which power comes from the people and is shared with local government; a nation with a constitution that protects our rights from any arbitrary decision of governments.

Thomas Paine, the political radical, once said: “The first duty of every patriot is to protect his people from their government.”

We have been doing that for years against the UK Government – we will not let Scotland off the hook.

As I write this letter, I can hear in my mind the voice of Hamish Henderson, the Scottish poet, singing two lines of his famous song Freedom Come All Ye, so relevant to our time:

“So come all ye at hame wi’ freedom, Never heed whit the hoodies croak for doom.”

Scotland’s future is in your hands as never before.

Of one thing, I am convinced. If we say Yes, future generations will thank us for the proud caring
Scotland in which they live.

If we say No, they will ask in despair and disbelief, why we briefly held the nation’s fate in our hands, and let it drop.

We stand at that crossroads. We look ahead along the new way – the road less travelled. We cannot see all the way ahead but we can see far enough to know the nation would be safe in our hands.

I know the powerful will say No.

Opinion: Historic chance for Scotland

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On Thursday around four million Scots will be voting on the future of their country’s independence. The cultural and political otherness of the Scots justifies the experiment, 0,,17910386_303,00says DW’s Daniel Scheschkewitz. 

For many years, Scotland was considered by many people in Germany and Central Europe as a remote region in Britain’s far north, linguistically equated with England . Sure, people knew that it rained a lot there, and that Scotland’s men were fond of wearing skirts and drinking whiskey, and that their proverbial stinginess was less than amusing. But that Scotland was for many centuries a proud, independent nation before 1707 – that was less well known, overshadowed by its more recent history as part of the United Kingdom.

But all that is old news: If the majority of Scots over the age of 16 say ‘Yes’ to independence on Thursday, Scotland could return to the map of Europe as an independent state. The United Kingdom, that governmental construct of the 18th century, could become a part of the past, with as yet unrecognizable political and economic consequences. Would this be a step backwards? A historical- romantic anachronism and relapse into a small state mindset in a modern Europe without borders? In my opinion: No!

Always been different

Scotland has always been different from its neighbor to the south, England. Even the Romans recognized that fact. Not for nothing did Emperor Hadrian, in the second century, order a wall to be built along the border with the Celtic Picts in the north. In the coming centuries, the northern Celts and, in the south, the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, waged war against each other, with the Scottish army always striving to preserve its independence.

It was only after the union of the royal houses in 1603 and later, the ill-fated attempt by the Scots to launch their own trading empire in India, Africa and the Americas, did they agree to a financially necessary parliamentary union with England in 1707. This set the foundation for the rise of Great Britain as a world power. Scotland and England, along with the carbon -rich Wales, created a resource pool, unique in the world, which brought the island kingdom political power on the world stage and prosperity at home. Problems over cultural and political differences only resurfaced in the second half of the 20th century, but then with full force.

Union from another time

In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher de-industrialized Britain and overhauled the ailing national budget with the black gold from Scotland’s North Sea oilfields. At first the Scots took it all in stride, but when they began to realize that many in their oil capital of Aberdeen, which by all right should have resembled a Scottish Abu Dhabi, still lived in poverty and misery, doubts began to emerge. These doubts only increased as Thatcher’s Conservative Party took almost unbroken control of the British Parliament – this despite Scots not having sent even one Conservative MP to Westminster in every election since 1997.

In a Scotland widely deprived of its political influence and economic possibilities, the influence of nationalists began to grow. In 1999, they managed to wrest political control from London and set up the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

 

 

UK Investors pull $27bn out of UK in one month amid fears of Scotland’s exit – report

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Almost $27 billion of financial assets were pulled out of Britain in August in the run up to Scotland’s vote on independence, according to a new report by a London-based 'Yes' campaign people gather for a rally outside the BBC in Glasgow, Scotlandconsultancy comparing the capital outflow to the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.

The financial outflow of 16.8 billion pounds ($27 billion) in August was the biggest since the white heat of the 2008 financial crisis when the US bank Lehman Brothers went bust, according to a CrossBorderCapital report compiled by the consultancy and released on Friday.

“Sterling outflows have been an issue since the end of June, but they really gathered pace in August and now look like intensifying again with the possibility of Scottish independence coming to the front of investors’ minds,” said Michael Howell, the managing director of the CrossBorder Capital.

The consultancy pointed out that the figures also dwarfed the selling of UK assets around the 2010 general election, afrer which there were several days of uncertainty over who would form the government.

Howell added that UK outflow was more than double the combined outflow from Germany and Australia and only Japan is currently seeing a faster rate of capital outflow from the country. This year UK has experienced a net 127 billion pound outflow ($206bn), while in 2013 a net 39 billion pounds ($63bn) flowed into the nation’s economy, he added.

The daily equity flow data pointed to “some of the largest UK equity selling on record, demonstrating investor concerns ahead of the Scottish referendum next week,” said Morgan Stanley on Friday.

Scotland is to vote in a referendum on its independence from Britain on Thursday, with opinion polls displaying a narrow gap between the pro-independence campaigners and those against the exit from the union. The latest ICM/Sunday Telegraph poll showed the biggest ‘Yes’ share of the referendum campaign, with 54 percent reporting an intention to vote ‘yes’ and 46 percent ‘no’.

The new liquidity report comes as the world’s leading investment banks warned of the financial folly Scotland would face if it votes for leaving the 307 year union with the UK.

On Friday, Deutsche Bank issued a paper criticizing independence and saying that it would be one of the greatest historic mistakes ever made.

“A ‘yes’ vote for Scottish independence on Thursday would go down in history as a political and economic mistake as large as Winston Churchill’s decision in 1925 to return the pound to the Gold Standard or the failure of the Federal Reserve to provide sufficient liquidity to the US banking system, which we now know brought on the Great Depression,” said Chief economist David Folkerts-Landau.

Deutsche Bank described the desire for independence as ‘incomprehensible’ saying it will entail negative consequences.

Three retail giants joined the debate in a letter to the Scottish Daily Record newspaper on Friday. Sir Ian Cheshire, of B&Q-owner Kingfisher, Marc Bolland, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, and James Timpson, of cobbler and key-cutter Timpson agreed that consumers north of the border will suffer from the country’s exit

“We are concerned about the greater complexity of trading across a national border coupled with the uncertainty over big issues such as the single currency and membership of the EU,” the joint letter read.

“Within our group there is first-hand experience of trading across national borders – in France, Ireland and across the world. Our experience is that it always leads to more red tape and higher costs and we feel it is important to share this experience.”

“We know that running a separate pricing system in Scotland will mean taking the difficult decision as to whether or not to pass on the increased costs through higher prices to Scottish consumers.”