BRIT-SCOT MINISTER THREATENS TO BLOCK SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE VOTE
The ‘Brit-Scot’ who is the current British Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, has threatened to block any further right for the Scottish Parliament to have a further Scottish Independence referendum.
Michael Fallon is the Tory MP, "representing" an English constituency, who was appointed by David Cameron as the Minister to be involved in transferring the last of English shipbuilding from Portsmouth up to Scotland - when the Cameron Government closed the docks near Portsmouth.
This was done just before the Scottish Independence Referendum with a view to making it more difficult for the ‘Yes’ Campaign to win in Scotland.
At that point it looked as if the Clydeside ship workers might be considering voting for independence. This electoral bribe was to encourage them to vote ‘No’ to keep their jobs. It carried the implied threat that, if Scottish Independence won, the Ministry of Defence’s ship building contracts might go elsewhere!
Now that the "Supreme Court" has ruled that Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Parliaments/Assemblies and Governments have no legal or constitutional role directly in Brexit. This ruling has, of course, ramped up the Scottish Nationalist rhetoric about going for Scottish Independence. Michael Fallon has now waded into this controversy suggesting that Westminster may refuse to authorise a further Scottish referendum.
I also think Westminster would be within it constitutional legal rights to refuse to authorise a further Scottish referendum and that would mean that it couldn’t legally be held. The effect would be to call Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff.
When you call someone’s bluff you have to bear in mind that there are two possible consequences. One is that they will back down and go off quietly having been humiliated. The other is that they will fully “go for it”!
In this context if Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP were to “go for it”, they would be holding a referendum that was technically illegal. They would also have to ignore all rulings by the courts to the contrary. In that scenario it is not unlikely that they would win, just as happened in Catalonia! If they did that they might well feel entitled to use any methods, including those outside the law, including violence.
Michael Fallon may hold an apparently grand office within the British State as Secretary of State for Defence. He may sit in an office once occupied by titan’s from the days of British imperial power, but he is by comparison the equivalent of the dwarfish wizard of Oz sounding very impressive and frightening, but without the real power that the title once gave.
Michael Fallon is after all the Secretary of State for Defence whose main job from the moment of appointment has been to slash the British Defence budget to the point where the capabilities of the British armed forces have been drastically reduced. It must now be extremely doubtful that the British military would be willing to obey orders to suppress Scottish nationalism.
In those circumstances calling the SNP’s bluff might well be the equivalent of pulling the trigger that blows apart the United Kingdom of Great Britain!
Here is the article which reports Michael Fallon’s comments:-
Michael Fallon: Westminster will block new Scottish independence vote
The UK Government will block any attempts by the SNP to hold a second independence referendum, Michael Fallon has said.
In a further sign of the tensions between Holyrood and Westminster, the Defence Secretary said the Scottish government should "forget" any plans to stage another vote.
Mr Fallon hit out in an interview with The Herald ahead of a visit to the Royal Marine base near Arbroath today.
Constitutional matters are reserved to Westminster, so the UK Government must give permission to the Scottish Parliament if it wants to hold another referendum.
Asked if ministers would facilitate a fresh vote on Scotland leaving the UK, the Defence Secretary said: “No, forget it. The respect agenda is two-way.”
He added: "She [Ms Sturgeon] is constantly asking us to respect the SNP government but she has to respect the decision of Scotland to stay inside the UK in 2014 and the decision of the UK to leave the EU. Respect works two ways."
Scots voted by 55% to 45% in favour of staying in the union in 2014, but Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly mooted the idea of a rerun following the Brexit vote, in which Scotland overwhelmingly backed Remain.
The Defence Secretary said the SNP government did not have a mandate for a second referendum, because it failed to secure a majority at the last Holyrood election.
He said: "We may well have seen peak SNP. They lost the referendum, they lost seats. There are other voices in Scotland now, not least Ruth Davidson's."
But Ms Sturgeon accused Mr Fallon of “backpedalling” after he refused to repeat his comments when interviewed on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme.
When asked whether UK ministers would block a vote, he said: “We don't see the need for a referendum - this is a diversion.
"What the Scottish government should be focusing on is what it was elected to do, which is to improve schools standards, get to grips with the problems in Scottish hospitals and reverse the serious rise in unemployment."
The First Minister tweeted in response that such a block would be “disastrous” for the UK Government.
Theresa May's official spokeswoman said: "The real question here is should there be another independence referendum and our view on that has been clear, which is that the one in 2014 was legal, fair and decisive.
"Our priority here is on how do we look to the future and move forward. We believe that this issue was settled in 2014. I think recent polls don't suggest there has been a big change in the views around a second referendum, so what we should be focusing on is how do we work together to ensure the best possible outcome for the UK as we exit the EU."
A spokesperson for the First Minister said: “The arrogance of the Tories knows no bounds. They now think they can do what they want to Scotland and get away with it – not content with trying to drag us out of EU against our will with the support of just one MP out of 59 in Scotland, they are now suggesting they might try to block the nation's right to choose a different path.
"Any Tory bid to block a referendum would be a democratic outrage, but would only succeed in boosting support for both a referendum and for independence itself - something which the prime minister has previously indicated she understands all too well.
"Our mandate is unequivocal, with a manifesto commitment which makes explicitly clear that the Scottish Parliament should have the right to decide on an independence referendum if Scotland faces being taken out of the EU against our will."”
(Here is a link to the original >>> https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/uk-regions/scotland/news/82978/michael-fallon-westminster-will-block-new-scottish).
To be honest there is no way anyone can stop the Scots from holding another independence Referendum as the SNP has a huge representation at Westminster.
ReplyDeleteShould they block it, the Scottish government will just invoke International Law to justify its actions.
The problem with the last 2014 Referendum was the last minute bribe to keep them in. Unfortunately Scotland will be a thorn in our side whether it is part of the UK or not, and that is why we need an English Parliament.
Francis
After Conservative defence cuts of recent years I doubt the British military have enough infantry to man Hadrian's Wall let alone "suppress Scottish nationalism".
ReplyDeleteIt is most strange that the Conservatives continue to cut our armed forces and yet Theresa May urged Trump not to be so reckless as actually to trust Russia and thus to ensure that NATO forces are hard against her border. It begs the question as to what game they are really playing with Russia and why they do not want to make peace with Russia and use NATO to tackle terrorism in Europe as Trump has suggested.
DeleteHowever, in a climate where the Left ensures that anything Trump says, whether true or sensible or not, is savaged by the Left and their compliant media then will the Left ever allow us to have peace with Russia? Are thy just angry against Russia not merely because she is more conservative but because she wants no part of the one world federal government that they and their banking and corporate masters yearn for. There are puzzles with Trump where China and Iran and Russia are concerned. My hope is that he is engaging with Russia in order to reach a balanced solution where Iran and Israel in the Middle East is concerned and the same for China. The fear is that the same old Industrial Military Complex is pushing him to war against them but as been said, Iran is surrounded by allies who would attack any American bases involved in such a reckless venture. What is true is that everything that Trump does is greeted with hysteria with no consideration of his ultimate goals. And they never question what Obama achieved both within the United States for both working and middle class and abroad which is constant war. The great anti-globalisation/globalism backlash is in full swing and nobody knows where it will end. As for Scotland they may achieve independence within the EU but for so little time before the EU collapses. As for Fallon, I did not even realise he was Scottish. To me he looks and sounds more Eton and Oxbridge than anything else.
Why would they man Hadrian's Wall anyway, since Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England.
DeleteWho the hell does he think he is, whats he going to do send the troops in to prevent the democratic process, the mans stupid enough! The way puplic opinion is going UDI could come first.
DeleteWill the English Democrats be standing a candidate in the Stoke by election or will they chicken out again and give anti-English Ukip a free run? If they can't make progress in Stoke, where can the EDs make progress?
ReplyDeleteA poll by the United Services Institute has shown that the majority in ten EU countries, including the United Kingdom, agree with Trump but want a ban on immigration from all Muslim majority countries. In the UK and Spain the majority for the ban is fewer than 50% with the figure for Spain being lower than the UK. But those for are still double those against the ban. Critics of the ban will say that this is because the Spanish are nostalgic for their Moorish past! The most for the ban are the Poles, no surprise there as they stood against the Ottoman Empire at the Gates of Vienna, have few or no Muslims and don't want them.
DeleteTwo consequences of this poll - which has been on RT but probably will never appear on the BBC - are firstly, whether the Euro-Marxist liberal elites will take any notice of it or will just pursue business as usual. The second is the effect on the forthcoming by-elections. Farage is associated now with Trump and the ban. In view of this poll, if it is published and I hope UKIP will refer to it, it is to be hoped that it will boost all the anti-establishment or "right wing" parties.
Another thing, they blame the crisis in the NHS on the aging ethnic English but not on the fact that 50% of births now are to mothers born abroad. Imagine the difference if they had not immigrated! The Royal Commission on world population requested by King George VI in the late 40s said that the third world should be industrialised to reduce poverty and the need for large families. But this was never instituted because industrialists in the west thought it would mean competition from the global south. So the third world, because of it, was encouraged to reproduce exponentially and is now overflowing into European countries and those of European settlement.
The result will be that the north comes to resemble the global south unless action is taken to ensure that those countries are industrialised and their peoples encouraged to stay put. This is what Trump is meant to be working on unless they take him out. And Enoch Powell said that immigrants should be encouraged to return home or stay put to develop their homelands. But all those suggesting such a things have been dismissed as racist and xenophobic. It may just be, however, that with the collapse of the west through mass immigration, politicians may read the Royal Commission and finally begin to follow its advice.
£200 billion on the Trident weapons system which in the fog of war could see a stray missile striking the UK. If we ever needed to defend ourselves against America (or even Trump's friend Putin's Russia) we couldn't because they wouldn't allow it. Some "independent" defence system.
ReplyDeleteAs an English Democrat - not a British one - surely you yourself have eliminated yourself from holding any meaningful opinion or interference in another nation (in this case, Scotland).
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear - I fully support independence for England - why should we support the poorer nations of these isles in this post-Empire world.
Here we go again. 60m pounds to be wasted promoting unwanted multiculturalism.
ReplyDeletehttp://alt-right-news.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/you-canute-be-serious-uk-govt-tries-to.html?m=1
Francis
What is the English Democrats official position regarding the Alt-Right?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous8 February 2017 at 15:26
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment.
But one prime driver for miscegenation of the West may also be Coudenhove-Kalergi. Check it out.