The State of the UK Union in 2022

The Scottish Government has published the third position paper for Scottish Independence, this time is the economic case.

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/do...ndence.pdf

I remember when then they last commissioned an economic plan for an independent Scotland, the Sustainable Growth Commission, and it would up saying that in order to be economically viable there would need to be a level of austerity greater than that seen under Osborne.

Have they finally found one that gives them thr result they want ?

Sky - Most Scots 'would vote against independence', new poll suggests

The spike in support, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on Sturgeons plan for a new referendum, for Indy2 has dropped. This poll however was taken before the UK government triggered Section 35 in response to Hollyrood passing the GRRB. It will be interesting to see how that will affect support, one would assume that since the two issues are of a similar nature you would get the same result but the GRRB is so controversial and does not divide down the usual political lines of left v right or Indy v Union there will be many on the Indy side that will be quite pleased about Sunak government's actions.

I feel that the response from the SNP government & their nationalist outriders in the media has been typically blown way out of proportion to suggest that the use of an S35 is some kind of assualt on democracy i feel is ludicrous.

First of all S35 is a legitimate part of the Scotland Act passed with a majority in our democratically elected parliament. I can't remember the SNP ever calling for or proposing a bill in Westminster for it removal.

Second the nature of the act, where a federal parliament can overrule a devolved one is common place in federal democracies. Canada for example has a system known as Paramountcy where if there is a conflict between provincial and federal laws, the federal law will prevail and the provincial law will be inoperative to the extent that it conflicts with the federal law.

In the United States the federal congress in D.C can pass laws that can limit or nulify laws passed by state legislatures. This came into particular prominence last year after SCOTUS repealed Roe vs Wade on the account that such issues should be decided by the states, however there was attempts by Democrats to pass a law in congress that would of codified Roe into law and limitted or completely stopped laws against abortion by red states. Something that i imagine that most SNP/YES supporters who decry the S35 order would support

Third, most SNP/YES voters want to take an independant Scotland into The EU, EU laws have supremacy over those passed by member states so if a similar conflict were to arise the EU law would win out. An Independant Scotland has a population of 5.4m, Slovakia a country with the same population has 13 MEPs, so if you add that to the existing 705 in the EU parliament & work it as a percentage then Scotland would have 1.8% of the representation, compare that to Westminster where Scotland has 9% (59/650).

In addition The EU operates on a principal of unanimous consent, it is entirely plausable that The EU parliamet could pass legislation that all Scotland's MEPs vote for, that the Scottish parliament votes in agreement with, that 26 of the other 27 member nations agree with but is vetoed by just one country which the Scottish people would have an absolute zero say in and doesn't go ahead. Seems a bit of a double standard.

Fourth and finally acts like S35 can be found within Scotland itself, living in Aberdeen I remember when Donald Trump was looking to build a course at Balmedie just 10 miles from my flat. The approval for its construction was a devloved matter for local governments. Aberdeenshire Council voted against the proposals much to Trumps displeasure, the Scottish Government which our current FM was Deputy of held a vote as to whether it should overturn the decision by the democratically elected council. How did it go ? Well i'll let this picture do the talking

Wow Wee Jimmy is to Resign

This defacto referendum nonsense didn't have a lot of support within the party so she bottled it before the conference. That, and the Isla Bryson scandal being linked in peoples minds to the Gender Reform Bill has caused a dip in the polls for independence.

There's also a Police investigation coming down the track...

Christ, I hope it's not Humza When does Kate Forbes get back from maternity leave?

Whatever happens, nobody say Alex Salmond 3 times

Alex Salmond ,Alex Salmond Alex Salmond

think Kate Forbes is back now

As long as its not Mahri Black mind you it would give labour more of a chance

There’s shit coming down the pipe and she knows it. It’ll be hilarious watching her mouth breathing supporters tying themselves in knots trying to make excuses.

Ladbrokes odds for next leader and FM.

Angus Robertson - 6/5
Kate Forbes - 7/2
John Swinney - 6/1
Keith Brown - 7/1
Humza Yousaf - 10/1
Stephen Flynn - 12/1
Mairi McAllan - 16/1
Mhairi Black - 20/1
Joanna Cherry 20/1

It would be a rather unusual move for a centre left social democratic party to elect Forbes, an anti abortion evangelical christian as its leader, especially as they rely heavily on youth enthusiasm for pushing for Indy2

Looks like someone is glad she has gone

https://twitter.com/jamesdoleman/status/...7747487746