Scottish Independence

MPs are set to examine the effectiveness of the Electoral Commission at the time of the Brexit and Scottish independence referendums.  The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) will be hearing from senior officials of both campaigns on the Commission’s role of enforcing compliance with rules governing spending and donations during both votes. The meeting on Tuesday comes […]

Many pro-Europeans, north and south of the border, have sympathy with the independence cause. But this is yet another Union they should fight to stay in A referendum on Scottish independence is coming. Boris Johnson pretends it isn’t. He will delay, prevaricate, challenge in court and maybe deny it altogether. But none of these tactics will […]

Boris Johnson’s bid to save the Union by splashing the cash won’t be enough. He will need to do a lot more than that.  The ballots cast by Scotland’s voters hadn’t been fully counted when the high-stakes game of constitutional poker between Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson began. As it became clear – to no […]

Here’s every Scottish independence supporter’s favourite thing… a list of reasons, from an Englishman, as to why Scotland might want to stay in the Union It was a good election for incumbents. Across the countries of the UK, parties engaged in frenetic, Covid-disrupted campaigns, only for most things to stay the same. Scotland’s parliament, on […]

The Tories privately admit there is a mandate for a second referendum on Scottish independence and that it could take place as early as 2023, a former adviser has said. Ex-communications chief for the Scottish Conservatives Andy Maclver told STV’s Scotland Tonight that it was “perfectly obvious” last week’s election results were a mandate for Indyred2. […]

If Scotland becomes independent during Boris Johnson’s premiership, that will be his lasting legacy, former prime minister Gordon Brown has said. The argument over Scottish independence has intensified in recent days after the SNP’s landslide victory in the Holyrood election, which also produced the largest pro-independence majority in the Parliament in the history of devolution. […]

Michael Gove has refused to rule out suing Nicola Sturgeon’s government if it tries to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence, in a briefing with journalists. The cabinet minister avoided answering the question when probed twice by reporters. Asked if he would take Sturgeon to court over her proposals to hold a new vote, Gove […]

Gordon Brown is launching a fresh campaign to keep Scotland in the UK in the wake of the SNP’s latest election victory. The former Labour prime minister declared that the think tank he set up, Our Scottish Future, will become a “campaigning movement” to make the “positive, progressive and patriotic case for Scotland in Britain”. […]

Alex Salmond will not return to the Scottish Parliament after he failed in his bid to pick up a seat on the North East regional list. The former first minster had hoped to boost the Scottish independence cause by returning to frontline politics with his Alba Party. But his party failed to pick up a […]

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants to hold a referendum on Scottish independence “when the time is right”, as she retained her Glasgow seat. Giving an acceptance speech in Glasgow after she defeated Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar by 19,735 votes to 10,279, the first minister said her party is set for a […]

An independent Scotland would need to confront border issues with the rest of the UK if returning to the European Union, Nicola Sturgeon has said. Concerns have been raised by critics of Scottish independence who say Scotland rejoining the EU would result in a hard border with England. The first minister told BBC Radio 4’s […]

Among the many complex issues that Scottish independence would throw up would be where to draw a line between English and Scottish waters. Should Scotland vote for independence at some point in the coming years, the issue of where its land border with England should lie will be among the simplest of subjects to resolve. The matter […]

Downing Street is embarking on an incompetent battle to preserve the Union Boris Johnson doesn’t care about Scotland. There are a lot of complex elements to the government’s anti-independence strategy, but at the heart of it is that one simple fact. He doesn’t understand Scotland and he isn’t interested in it. There couldn’t be a worse […]

The SNP could miss out on a majority at the Holyrood election, according to a new poll. The Savanta ComRes survey for The Scotsman predicts the party will return 63 MSPs – two short of a majority and the same number as in 2016. However, there would still be a pro-independence majority at Holyrood, with […]

The Alba Party’s manifesto is the only one “taking Scottish independence seriously”, Alex Salmond has said. At the launch of his party’s proposals, the former first minister took a swipe at the SNP and the Scottish Greens – the latter of whom he has previously accused of being “as weak as dishwater” on independence. During […]

Researchers argue the divides in England are even stronger than between the different nations of the United Kingdom. For many of us, a national identity is an essential part of who we are. For others, it’s a source of division. National boundaries, like any boundary, imply that some are on the outside. As long as […]

A new survey suggests that 60% of Labour supporters across the UK back another independence referendum “in principle” in the next few years, and 56% think the party should too. The YouGov study, which spoke to 1,073 Labour members between March 17 and March 24, found that while supporters in the rest of the UK […]

Nicola Sturgeon has said she has no plans to call a separate referendum on whether an independent Scotland should join the European Union. She said a “detailed prospectus” would be put to Scots ahead of any second independence referendum, and she claimed most people would want to be part of the EU again. She was […]

Scottish independence offers the only way back for the country to rejoin the European Union, the Scottish Greens have claimed. The party’s co-leader Lorna Slater said leaving the UK “is now our route back to EU membership” and that it would give Scotland “the powers and potential to be a leader in the transition to […]

The UK government has referred two Bills passed unanimously by the Scottish parliament to the Supreme Court over concerns it is outwith Holyrood’s powers. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill were passed in the weeks leading up to […]

A scathing new report has accused Boris Johnson of “speaking for England alone” and having “considerable indifference” to the devolved nations. Research from the University of Cambridge’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy accuses Westminster of treating devolved administrations with contempt and handling the maintaining of the Union as “someone else’s problem”. The “Union at the Crossroads” document comes […]

JAMES BALL on how the launch of the former first minister’s new party might play out at the polls. Alex Salmond and the intricacies of the Scottish voting system are not what Nicola Sturgeon wanted to be the focus in the run-up to this May’s Holyrood elections. Until just a few months ago, it felt like the […]

Downing Street has deleted a blog that talks up the economic prospects of Scottish independence, sparking concerns it was actively stifling freedom of speech. The SNP condemned the move and said it showed the government was “terrified” of the growing support for a Yes vote. It comes after a high-profile scientist warned the removal of the article, co-authored […]

Nicola Sturgeon has ruled out working with Alex Salmond’s new Alba Party after May’s Holyrood election – but has left open the prospect of a future deal with the Scottish Greens. While she insisted she is fighting the upcoming election in a bid to win an outright majority for the SNP after the May 6 […]

Alex Salmond’s Alba Party threatens to cost the SNP its majority at Holyrood due to voters choosing it instead, a new poll suggests. The Savanta ComRes poll for The Scotsman predicts the SNP will return 64 MSPs, one short of a majority, while the Alba Party will return none, but with 3% of the list […]

A group of Scottish Tories who want Scotland to have access to the EU single market are urging voters at the Holyrood election to cast their second vote for Alex Salmond’s Alba Party. Scottish Yes Tories say around 15% of their members voted Yes in 2014 – a number they say has been steadily growing since the […]

Scotland’s departure from the United Kingdom would lead to more of the politics pro-Europeans have fought against. Douglas Alexander’s excellent article seems to have stirred up some nationalist reaction in your letters page but none seems to answer the fundamental question raised, which is that if you think Brexit is a mistake, then why on […]

In both Scotland and Catalonia, the sense of inevitability that independence would soon become reality has receded as quickly as it appeared. What changed?  As Nicola Sturgeon fights for her political life in the wake of the scandal tearing her party apart, her former counterpart at the head of the Catalan independence movement, Carles Puigdemont, has his own […]