Edinburgh set to back Sturgeon call

– Scottish lawmakers yesterday began a debate on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s demand for an independence referendum – a major headache for Prime Minister Theresa May as she prepares to launch Brexit.

The Scottish parliament’s vote today is expected to endorse Sturgeon’s campaign to get the British government to agree to a second vote after a 2014 one in which Scots voted to stay in Britain.

The semi-autonomous Scottish government wants to ask the people of Scotland to reconsider their vote against independence with a new referendum before Britain is expected to leave the EU in 2019.

Sturgeon, leader of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), intends to use the Edinburgh parliament’s voice to assert Scotland’s “sovereign right” to choose its own future.

She said her Brexit compromise for Scotland to be allowed to remain in the European single market even as the rest of Britain leaves had been met with “a brick wall of intransigence” in London.

The Scottish parliament cannot hold a legally binding referendum without London’s consent – and May has insisted that “now is not the time” for a vote.

But Sturgeon has said it would be “democratically indefensible” to block a referendum, although she has signalled she is willing to negotiate on a date.

The SNP does not have an outright majority in Edinburgh, but it has already secured the support of the Green party for another independence bid.

The SNP won all but three Scottish seats in the British parliament in 2015, and Sturgeon stood for re-election to the Edinburgh parliament in May 2016, on a pledge to hold another referendum if Scotland was “dragged out” of the EU against its will. – AFP