Scotland seeks new vote

May’s hand moves closer to Brexit trigger

EDINBURGH, March 13, (RTRS): Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday demanded a new independence referendum to be held in late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union have become clearer.

A vote that could rip apart the United Kingdom just months before Brexit adds a tumultuous twist and highly uncertain consequences to the two-year process of leaving the EU after more than four decades.

“If Scotland is to have a real choice — when the terms of Brexit are known but before it is too late to choose our own course — then that choice must be offered between the autumn of next year, 2018, and the spring of 2019,” Sturgeon told reporters.

Her demand comes just as British Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the Brexit process, something opposed by most Scots in last June’s vote on leaving the bloc.

Ultimately it is the UK parliament in Westminster — where May commands a majority — which makes the call on whether Scotland can hold a second referendum. But if May refused to approve such a vote she could provoke a constitutional crisis.

This month, she accused Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party of sacrificing not only the United Kingdom but also Scotland with its “obsession” with securing independence.

Sturgeon has previously said she wanted Scotland to be allowed to strike its own deal with the EU to keep access to the bloc’s tariff-free

bill in Parliament aimed at clarifying what constitutes legitimate defense of people and property.

That the slain alleged thief was Romanian fueled anti-immigrant sentiment being whipped up by far-right parties, especially by the Northern League led by populist

Cattaneo

Berlusconi

single market. But on Monday she said her efforts had hit a “brick wall of intransigence” in London.

“If the UK leaves the EU without Scotland indicating beforehand — or at least within a short time after it — that we want a different relationship with Europe, we could face a lengthy period not just outside the EU but also the single market,” she said.

The results of the June 23 Brexit referendum called the future of the UK into question because England and Wales voted to leave the EU but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay, with an overall 51.9 percent in favour of leaving.

Meanwhile, May could clear the final hurdle standing between her and the start of Brexit negotiations on Monday when lawmakers will thrash out the final wording of a bill giving her the power to start the EU exit process.

In a debate which was due to begin later on Monday the government will call on lawmakers to throw out changes to the bill made by the upper house of parliament, arguing that May and her ministers need freedom to operate without restriction to get a good deal.

If successful, May could be ready to start a two-year negotiation period, as defined by Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, as early as Tuesday.

“Please don’t tie the prime minister’s hands,” Brexit minister David Davis said on Sunday, in a plea to lawmakers in May’s Conservative Party who have threatened to rebel.

firebrand Matteo Salvini.

One bill, proposed by the Northern League two years ago, would widen the circumstances in which citizens could act for legitimate defense.

“A dead man is never good news, but the Italian citizens stand by Mario Cattaneo,” Salvini tweeted Sunday. “No judge can convict him.” The owner’s son, Gianluca Cattaneo, said: “We’ve re-opened, because one needs to start over, go forward, but our morale is very low.

“We wanted to re-open today thanks to the strength of our customers and to say thanks.”

Giorgia Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, contended that if the right-wing-backed legitimate defense bill had become law already, “Mario Cattaneo wouldn’t have to face a trial.”

“The principle that we want to ratify is clear: if, in the best of hypotheses you come