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You may have already heard that Scotland wants to be an Independent country. The Scottish Government (at the moment the Scottish National Party is in charge), announced a referendum for the 18th September; the question is easy: should Scotland be an Independent country?
The question may be easy, but surely the answer isn’t.
The Yes Party (for an Independent Scotland) claim that Scotland can be a better country if independent from the rest of the UK, since its economy is rich enough to sustain a new state. Moreover, it says that Scotland can be a fairer and more just country, since it wouldn’t have to follow the decisions of the politics in Westminster. In many occasions, Scottish representatives have been outnumbered in UK political life and took some decisions that the Scottish public opinion didn’t agree with (e.g. the war in Iraq in 2003).
Obviously the UK government is against the independence of the Scotland, saying “we believe Scotland is stronger in the UK, and the UK is stronger with Scotland in it.”
The No Party says that Scotland can’t be financially independent and in the next 20 years it will be not able to pay the pensions of the senior citizens.
Furthermore, separating from the UK, several years will pass before Scotland could be part of the EU, with all the problems around foreign policy that this fact will lead to.
What would happen if the “Yes” side win the referendum?
It will start a period of negotiation, to settle the financial matters, to transfer the political authorities to the Scottish Parliament and Government and to discuss liabilities of the two countries.
The Scottish Government is confident that Scotland could be an Independent Country by the 24th March 2016. This date was chosen because on the 5th May 2016 a new Scottish Parliament will be voted, so it could be the first elections to an independent parliament.
But the referendum of the 18th September might not be the only one that will be held in Scotland next September. Citizens of Shetland, Orkneys and Western Isles are not really prone to remain part of Scotland, if it will separate from the UK.
The ROTI committee (Referendum on the Isles) has lodged a petition to the Scottish Government to ask to hold three different referenda on the three archipelagos. The people of each islands group will be ask whether they would prefer their island group to become an independent country, or
to stay in Scotland; and, in the event of a yes vote in the referendum on Scottish independence, they will be asked of the want to leave Scotland and stay in the remainder of the UK.
The future for Scotland is not easy to predict. At the moment the polls say that 54% of the population will vote against Scottish independence.
For this referendum all Scottish citizens above 16 are to vote and it is likely that there will be a huge turnout.
Will EdinburghEazy end up being in a new country? This is not for us to say, but certainly the 18th September will be a historical day for Scotland and for all United Kingdom.
