UK: Supreme Court rules against Scottish independence referendum. Mr Bairner (analyst) to SIR, “defeat for democracy”

(London) “I am disappointed at this decision by the UK Supreme Court, for I think that the Scots should be given the right to vote on their independence. The UK is a voluntary union of different nations - England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And I think that each of them should be free to leave whenever they want. The majority of Scots voted against Brexit. Yet they were forced to leave the EU. This situation has made the case for independence even stronger”, said Alan Bairner, professor at Loughborough University and expert on British politics, commenting on the decision by the UK Supreme Court to prevent the Scottish Government from holding a second independence referendum. In the first referendum in 2014, the majority of Scots, 55%, had voted to stay in the UK. Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has always supported independence, appealed to Supreme Court judges following the UK Government’s refusal to allow a second independence referendum. “It is a defeat for democracy that the Scots cannot vote in a referendum because the majority of MPs are in favour of Scotland leaving the UK. Right now, only 50% of voters are in favour of independence, but a majority is just a matter of time, because young people want to leave London”, the expert concludes.
Silvia Guzzetti