Just in case you have been visiting the International Space Station or trekking through the Amazon or your name is Nicola Sturgeon, I wanted to let you know the outcome of the referendum on Scottish Independence. The answer was 55.3% of the votes cast said no to independence. This on a respectable turnout of 84.6%.
If you were on the ISS or seeking new species in the Amazon you could be forgiven for not knowing the result but Nicola Sturgeon is the Deputy Leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party and, following the referendum result and the resignation of Alex Salmond, she is soon to become the leader of the SNP and the First Minister of Scotland. So clearly she does know the result!
Maybe it is the inappropriate climate in Scotland that causes the SNP vines to yield such sour grapes? I ask because the latest proposal from Nicola Sturgeon is that in any referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Union, then the result must not only be a majority over the whole of the UK, but also a majority in each of the constituent nations of the UK. So if the UK as a whole votes to leave the UK but in Scotland there is a majority to stay in the EU, then the UK would have to stay in the EU!
This is a crazy notion of democracy. I remind you that Scotland voted to remain part of the UK. The UK is considered by international bodies as a unitary authority. When treaties are signed, they are signed on behalf of the United Kingdom, not the constituent member countries but the United Kingdom. The UK is a member of the United Nations and indeed the EU not the individual constituent nations.
This is fatuous nonsense from Sturgeon and the SNP.
When the SNP were pushing the independence agenda, seeking to divorce Scotland from the rest of the UK, they didn't for one minute consider the thoughts or opinions of the rest of the UK. Scotland was to have this divorce and Scotland would decide how the fruits of the union would be shared out and the rest of the UK would just have to lump it. There's a part of me that believes that many people in Scotland saw that such a one-sided approach to a divorce was unrealistic and unfair. Think of any divorced couple that you know - do you you know of any where one party had to stay silent and accept everything that the other party wanted?
Think further on Sturgeon's ideas of democracy. Northern Ireland has an electorate of just over 1.4 million. In Sturgeons World, if just over half of those voters - say 706,000 vote no to leaving the EU in a referendum then this would dictate the outcome for the whole of the UK. These 706,000 voters would trump whatever the other 45 million voted for! Of course, it could require even less than these 706,000 votes, since that is based on a 100% turnout in Northern Ireland!
This is blatantly absurd. Sturgeon knows this but wants to bait the Westminster parliament and is trying to gain independence by the back door. I guess the rationale at the SNP policy asylum runs something like this. We will insist, on behalf of the people of Scotland, that any referendum on EU membership must have not only a UK majority but one in the same way in each of the constituent countries. That way, if England's 38-39 million voters, vote no but just 706,000 people in Northern Ireland vote yes, then it doesn't matter what majority is found in the England part of the UK, the result will be determined by those Northern Ireland Yes votes! This will really annoy the English and will strengthen UKIP and will lead to calls from the English for them to have independence from the rest of the UK and so, Scotland will be given independence even though it has said (against our strong advice) that it doesn't want it! Magic!!
Sturgeon and the SNP know that foreign affairs is not a matter that is devolved to the Scottish parliament. These powers are reserved to the national parliament at Westminster, where members of parliament, elected from across the UK represent the people of the UK. Sturgeon and the rest of the Scottish parliament should stick to trying to manage Scottish affairs.
Loosely related to this subject, I was reading comments on the BBC about Sturgeon's outlandish proposals (seemed to be the majority viewpoint, there, as well). Commentators kept referring to someone called Lego man and it took me a couple of minutes to get the visual and the connection - see how long it takes you!
If you were on the ISS or seeking new species in the Amazon you could be forgiven for not knowing the result but Nicola Sturgeon is the Deputy Leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party and, following the referendum result and the resignation of Alex Salmond, she is soon to become the leader of the SNP and the First Minister of Scotland. So clearly she does know the result!
Maybe it is the inappropriate climate in Scotland that causes the SNP vines to yield such sour grapes? I ask because the latest proposal from Nicola Sturgeon is that in any referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Union, then the result must not only be a majority over the whole of the UK, but also a majority in each of the constituent nations of the UK. So if the UK as a whole votes to leave the UK but in Scotland there is a majority to stay in the EU, then the UK would have to stay in the EU!
This is a crazy notion of democracy. I remind you that Scotland voted to remain part of the UK. The UK is considered by international bodies as a unitary authority. When treaties are signed, they are signed on behalf of the United Kingdom, not the constituent member countries but the United Kingdom. The UK is a member of the United Nations and indeed the EU not the individual constituent nations.
This is fatuous nonsense from Sturgeon and the SNP.
When the SNP were pushing the independence agenda, seeking to divorce Scotland from the rest of the UK, they didn't for one minute consider the thoughts or opinions of the rest of the UK. Scotland was to have this divorce and Scotland would decide how the fruits of the union would be shared out and the rest of the UK would just have to lump it. There's a part of me that believes that many people in Scotland saw that such a one-sided approach to a divorce was unrealistic and unfair. Think of any divorced couple that you know - do you you know of any where one party had to stay silent and accept everything that the other party wanted?
Think further on Sturgeon's ideas of democracy. Northern Ireland has an electorate of just over 1.4 million. In Sturgeons World, if just over half of those voters - say 706,000 vote no to leaving the EU in a referendum then this would dictate the outcome for the whole of the UK. These 706,000 voters would trump whatever the other 45 million voted for! Of course, it could require even less than these 706,000 votes, since that is based on a 100% turnout in Northern Ireland!
This is blatantly absurd. Sturgeon knows this but wants to bait the Westminster parliament and is trying to gain independence by the back door. I guess the rationale at the SNP policy asylum runs something like this. We will insist, on behalf of the people of Scotland, that any referendum on EU membership must have not only a UK majority but one in the same way in each of the constituent countries. That way, if England's 38-39 million voters, vote no but just 706,000 people in Northern Ireland vote yes, then it doesn't matter what majority is found in the England part of the UK, the result will be determined by those Northern Ireland Yes votes! This will really annoy the English and will strengthen UKIP and will lead to calls from the English for them to have independence from the rest of the UK and so, Scotland will be given independence even though it has said (against our strong advice) that it doesn't want it! Magic!!
Sturgeon and the SNP know that foreign affairs is not a matter that is devolved to the Scottish parliament. These powers are reserved to the national parliament at Westminster, where members of parliament, elected from across the UK represent the people of the UK. Sturgeon and the rest of the Scottish parliament should stick to trying to manage Scottish affairs.
Loosely related to this subject, I was reading comments on the BBC about Sturgeon's outlandish proposals (seemed to be the majority viewpoint, there, as well). Commentators kept referring to someone called Lego man and it took me a couple of minutes to get the visual and the connection - see how long it takes you!
No comments:
Post a Comment