Scottish Independence Bid Blocked by UK Supreme Court

UK’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday the Scottish government cannot hold a second referendum on independence next year without approval from the British parliament, dealing a hammer blow to nationalists’ hopes of holding a vote next year. 

 

In 2014, Scots rejected ending the more-than 300-year-old union with England by 55% to 45%, but independence campaigners have argued the vote two years later for Britain to leave the European Union, which the majority of Scottish voters opposed, has materially changed the circumstances. 

 

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon (left), leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party had already announced that she intended to hold an advisory independence vote on October 19, 2023, but that it had to be lawful and internationally recognized. 

 

However, the British government in London have said they would not grant permission for another plebiscite, saying it should be a once-in-a-generation event. 

 

Polls suggest voters remain evenly split over whether or not they support independence and a vote would be too close to call. 

 

The Scottish government’s most senior law officer had asked the UK Supreme Court whether the Scottish government could pass legislation paving the way for an advisory second referendum without the approval of the UK parliament. 

 

The court ruled they could not. 

 

Sturgeon said she accepted the ruling on Wednesday, but tried to frame the decision as another pillar in the argument for secession. “A law that doesn’t allow Scotland to choose our own future without Westminster consent exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership & makes (a) case” for independence”, she wrote on Twitter. 

 

Her next step in her effort to achieve a vote will be to brand the next UK general election – scheduled for January 2025 at the latest – as a proxy referendum in Scotland on which course to take. 

 

#independence4scotland