ChatterBank2 mins ago
Illegal "Referendum"?
218 Answers
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Why is the SNP wasting effort and resources on pursuing an illegal "referendum" when they should be fighting the war on COVID-19 with the rest of the UK?
Why is the SNP wasting effort and resources on pursuing an illegal "referendum" when they should be fighting the war on COVID-19 with the rest of the UK?
Answers
All you English"
13:46 Wed 03rd Feb 2021
Those in Catalonia were convicted of sedition and misuse of public funds. Sedition is no longer a crime in the UK but misuse of public funds is. However, I don't see any prospect of prosecutions if the Scottish government do hold a referendum. They should just be allowed to get on with it so long as those taking part are clear it is not legally binding.
I think many Scottish people are fed up with MS Sturgeon and her antics and the result of any referendum may not be the foregone conclusion that many think it is. But if they must go, they must because I think more English than Scots are sick of seeing Ms Sturgeon on the telly spouting her anti-English rhetoric. Quite frankly Scotland has enough problems to deal with - which it does not seem too clever at resolving - without going through the undoubted disruption that independence will bring.
I think many Scottish people are fed up with MS Sturgeon and her antics and the result of any referendum may not be the foregone conclusion that many think it is. But if they must go, they must because I think more English than Scots are sick of seeing Ms Sturgeon on the telly spouting her anti-English rhetoric. Quite frankly Scotland has enough problems to deal with - which it does not seem too clever at resolving - without going through the undoubted disruption that independence will bring.
TCL, read the article "Under the blueprint, Ms Sturgeon would demand that Mr Johnson agree to a 'Section 30' order that paves the way to a second independence referendum. " - section 30 was granted in 2014 for the "once in a generation" referendum. If they hold one without it, it'll be a straw poll.
It's perhaps a part of UK tradition, but I don't see that the Scots Parliament can grant itself power to hold a legally-binding referendum without a S.30 approval, which will presumably not be forthcoming. I think the Act cited above also fits into this: it gives the Scottish Parliament the power to hold a referendum in general, but (presumably deliberately) doesn't talk about specifically an Independence Referendum.
A second referendum bothers me for more or less the same reason the first one did: it's simply the wrong decision to try and break up the UK, and both countries would be worse off because of it.
The "once in a generation" part doesn't bother me particularly, because it's legally and politically meaningless. Very often it's used as a threat, if anything: ie, it's meant along the lines of "if you do this there is no turning back." But democracies are always free to change their decisions; no electorate can ever be beholden to its predecessors, in the same way that no law can ever be passed in this country that cannot be overturned at any point in the future.
The "once in a generation" part doesn't bother me particularly, because it's legally and politically meaningless. Very often it's used as a threat, if anything: ie, it's meant along the lines of "if you do this there is no turning back." But democracies are always free to change their decisions; no electorate can ever be beholden to its predecessors, in the same way that no law can ever be passed in this country that cannot be overturned at any point in the future.
