The Parallels Between Brexit and Scottish Independence

British prime minister Theresa May said on Thursday (16 March) that “now is not the time” for a second Scottish independence referendum, because it would be unfair to ask people to decide on their future without knowing the exact details of the Brexit deal.

Mrs May’s blunt intervention will be the subject of fevered debate at both the Tory Spring Forum in Cardiff and the SNP conference in Aberdeen today.

Under the headline “Feart” The National accuses the Tories of “running scared” of the Scottish people, after David Mundell and Ruth Davidson refused to set out an “arbitrary” timetable of when the United Kingdom government might allow Scots to hold a vote on independence.

“I’m responding to the proposal that’s been put forward by the First Minister”.

“It is for the Scottish parliament – not Downing Street – to determine the timing of a referendum, and the decision of the Scottish parliament must be respected”, she said. But they are right to demand another.

By 15:00 on Wednesday, there were nearly 120,000 signatories to the petition titled: “Another Scottish independence referendum should not be allowed to happen”. Brexit is as material as it gets.

If at first you don’t secede.

May has said she will do so later this month.

Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said the “Barroso doctrine” continued to apply – a reference to former commission president Jose Manuel Barroso that if one part of an European Union country became an independent state it would have to apply for European Union membership.

The Prime Minister insists the country must focus first on securing the best possible Brexit deal – the event Ms Sturgeon says justifies reopening the question.

“And as Nicola Sturgeon said, we had a manifesto commitment, we are looking to fulfil that unlike the Conservatives, who seem to be breaking manifesto commitments left, right and centre”.

Ms Sturgeon wants a referendum to coincide with the end of Brexit talks, when she says the terms of the UK’s deal to leave the European Union will become clear.

“There absolutely should not be another independence referendum until after Brexit”.

But behind all the politics and nationalist bluster, Mrs Sturgeon has done something to harm everyone in these islands. The Prime Minister appeared to be blocking any second vote on independence. How can British ministers disagree, when so many of them urged Britons to “vote Leave, take control” last summer? Just as it sounds unconvincing for Brexiteers now to argue for the union, it is hard for Ms Sturgeon to beat the drum both for membership of the EU and for exit from Britain. Europe and the rest of the world (that she wants to trade with) do too.

For most observers, Scotland is now a very different place to the one that voted on its constitutional future in 2014, choosing to reject sovereignty by 55 percent to 45 percent.

The Scots are in a wretched position.

‘It means taking the big decisions when they’re the right ones for Britain in the long-term.