Despite the British government’s repeated refusal, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the independence party SNP, announced in June that she wanted to organize a new referendum on the independence of the British nation in 2023.
Anticipating a legal standoff with the government in London, she had taken the lead in seizing the Supreme Court to determine whether the Scottish Parliament had the power to legislate on the issue without the agreement of the British government.
“If Westminster (the executive in London, editor’s note) had the slightest respect for Scottish democracy, this passage before the court would not be necessary”, lambasted Nicola Sturgeon Monday during the congress of his party.
“The issue has always been doomed to end up in court, sooner or later — and better sooner,” she added, repeating that if the Supreme Court were right, the “advisory” independence referendum would have take place on October 19, 2023.
“Should Scotland be an independent country?”, she wishes to ask the Scots who are, according to the polls, still very divided on the question.
Already consulted on the subject in 2014, they had voted 55% to remain within the United Kingdom.
But the separatists believe that Brexit has changed the situation, the Scots having opposed it by 62%, and want Scotland to join the European Union as an independent state.
Based on the first referendum, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson brushed aside the prospect of a new plebiscite, arguing that such a vote could only happen “once in a generation”.
The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss has been very firm, assuring that she “would not authorize” a referendum.
“I’m very clear that there shouldn’t be another referendum before the next generation,” she said.
– “Self-determination” –
If, after having heard the lawyers debate on the prerogatives of the Scottish Parliament, the Supreme Court agrees with Mrs Sturgeon and authorizes the local government to organize a new poll, the Scottish leader will have won her bet.
And in the event of a defeat in court, Ms Sturgeon has already warned that she will use the next legislative elections, scheduled for 2024, as a “de facto referendum”, campaigning only on the question of independence.
The SNP won the local elections in 2021 promising to hold a new referendum after the pandemic, arguing that “the right to self-determination is a fundamental and inalienable right”.
Edinburgh wants to be able to free itself from the central government and create its own legislative framework for a referendum, but London opposes this, arguing that Scotland cannot decide unilaterally on a subject like that of the union of the Kingdom -United.
“The court is unlikely to rule in favor of the SNP but those in favor (of keeping Scotland in the UK) should not see this as a final victory,” said Akash Paun of the Institute for Government think tank.
Supreme Court justices begin to consider the matter at 10:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) and their decision should be made within six to eight weeks.
If it takes place, such a referendum would however only be “advisory” and London would still have to give its agreement for independence for the Scottish nation.
