The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Indyref rallies held after court decision
Politicians and activists took to the streets after the Supreme Court deemed Holyrood can’t hold a referendum without Westminster’s approval.
The landmark ruling was met by vows to carry on the fight by supporters of Scottish independence, while critics were keen to tell the SNP that it’s time to “move on”.
A rally was held in Inverness city centre last night.
Nicola Sturgeon has been sent back to the drawing board by the UK’s highest court where judges ruled Holyrood does not have the power to hold a referendum without Westminster’s approval.
The first minister referred her plans to hold a second vote on independence next October to the UK’s top judges earlier this year.
But in a landmark ruling yesterday, Lord Reed said: “The Scottish Parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence.”
Ms Sturgeon immediately claimed the ruling makes the argument stronger for breaking up the union.
She said: “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 and makes the case for independence.”
The SNP leader repeated her claim that the next general election will be fought by her party on independence.
At a press conference in Edinburgh, she announced plans for a special SNP conference in the new year to hammer out the details.
Scotland’s top law officer, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, had asked the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of a referendum without Westminster approval. The Tories have repeatedly said they will not allow the Scottish Government to go ahead with a fresh poll on breaking up the union.
Dundee university constitutional law expert, Dr Tarik Olcay, said the ruling shows Scotland is “neither a colony or an occupied country”.
He said the SNP’s intervention in the court case had tried to make an argument about selfdetermination in international law.
“While some Scots may believe they are colonised or oppressed by the UK, the Supreme Court has clearly ruled that Scotland is neither a colony or an occupied country and therefore not subject to the international law governing the right to selfdetermination,” he said.
“The judgment leaves the Scottish Government with very limited room for progress in legal terms.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the SNP should move on, despite criticism from his opponents that Conservatives are to blame for economic woes.
“The Scottish people have made it clear in poll after poll that they don’t want another referendum next year,” he said.
Former SNP leader and first minister Alex Salmond criticised Ms Sturgeon’s
strategy as a “bad gamble”. He said: “What should have happened was the Scottish Parliament should have passed the legislation for an independence referendum and forced the UK Government to be the ones that challenged it.
“Real parliaments don’t ask for permission to implement their mandate.”
The court’s ruling is a major blow to the first minister and means she now has no obvious path to a referendum. She can continue pushing Rishi Sunak to allow a vote, but the Tory prime minister has no intentions of backing down. If that fails, the SNP leader’s strategy is for her party to fight the next UK general election on the single issue of independence.
Ms Sturgeon has said she will take a majority vote in favour of proindependence parties as a green light to negotiate for leaving the UK.
There may be mixed feelings over the Supreme Court’s ruling on the legality of holding a second independence referendum without UK Government permission. Regardless of your personal view, at the very least, Scotland now has legal clarity on this issue.
Despite this certainty and her claims that the case for leaving the UK has never been stronger, Nicola Sturgeon appeared less sure of herself than ever following the announcement. The first minister has painted herself into a corner; in order to keep her word, the only route available is to follow through on her promise to turn the next UK general election into a de facto indyref2. That would mean two more years of fixation on leaving the union, without any guarantee the many Scots currently opposed to the idea will get on board in 2024. While nobody expects the first minister to abandon her goal of independence, there are many crises to attend to that must take precedence.
It is Nicola Sturgeon’s responsibility to serve and lead the country and, by doing so well, it is likely she would increase overall support for her party and, indeed, perhaps even for independence. Improve conditions and the votes will follow. Such an outcome would make any general election a walk in the park for the SNP.
Rightly or wrongly, Ms Sturgeon was praised by people on all sides of the political spectrum for her conduct during the worst of the pandemic, and she could gain similar Brownie points if seen to be dealing with the soaring cost of living head-on.
As it stands, the Scottish Government appears too preoccupied with indyref2 to even fully register the dire straits some citizens are facing. Perhaps the dose of reality handed down by the Supreme Court will awaken the SNP from its fantasy-fuelled dream. For the sake of Scotland’s people, we hope so.