Arcadia Scotland

Scottish Independence Referendum Part Deux?

Today in the Scottish Parliament the Members of the Scottish Parliament will be completing a debate and voting to request powers from the United Kingdom parliament in Westminster to hold a referendum on Scottish independence. Tomorrow, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will start formal proceedings to start negotiations for the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

Yesterday I interviewed two students who are currently interning through an Arcadia and University of Edinburgh program at the Scottish Parliament at this momentous time in global politics to get their views on current political events. What will happen if Westminster refuses to grant the Scottish Parliament the power to hold a referendum? Interesting times. . .

Some terms to help understand what is going on:

BREXIT - this is Britain's exit from the Europe Union that was voted in June of last year in a referendum favouring leave by 52 to 48% across the whole of the United Kingdom. Scotland voted to remain in the European Union by 62% to 38%.

SCOTLAND REFERENDUM - in Sept 2014 Scotland voted to remain in the UK by 55% to 45%

ARTICLE 50 - this will be triggered tomorrow which is the notification to the European Union to start negotiations for a country to leave the European Union.

EUROPEAN UNION - The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km², and an estimated population of over 510 million.

NON-UK EUROPEANS currently resident in the UK (from 2014 census) - 3 million (5% of the UK population)

SECTION 30 POWERS - 'Section 30' refers to Section 30 of the Scotland Act 1998. This empowers the Queen (though in truth the UK Government) to make an Order in Council amending the list of matters that are reserved to the UK Parliament, which appear in Schedule 5 of the Act. Section 30 Orders can only be made if a draft is first placed before the Scottish Parliament, House of Commons and House of Lords, and approved by all three. These legal constraints essentially give each institution a veto over the terms of an order.

Olivia Heffernan from Illinois Wesleyan University is currently interning for a Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament.  The Conservative party is currently opposed to both a referendum and Scottish independence.

Kat Faulkner from Arcadia University is currently interning for a Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish National Party is both in favour of a new referendum and independence for Scotland.