Scotland Threatens To Veto Brexit
By Tyler Durden
Yesterday we warned that the biggest threat to the UK political process in the aftermath of the Friday referendum is neither an arguably fake petition to hold another referendum (it won’t happen), nor the so-called buyer’s remorse on the side of “Leave” voters, especially with ComRes confirming a negligible 1% of those voters were “Unhappy” with the outcome…
Vote split // On the #EUref result (Remain / Leave):
Happy: 4% / 92%
Unhappy: 88% / 1%
Indifferent: 7% / 5%
(via ComRes)— Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 25, 2016
…but rather a surprising discovery in a UK government Command Paper laying out “The Process of withdrawing from the European Union“, which goes through the process of invoking the infamous Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, and notes that there may be a rather substantial hurdle to the actual Brexit process: a Scottish and/or Northern Irish veto to Britain’s separation from the EU. To wit:
The role of the devolved legislatures in implementing the withdrawal agreement:
We asked Sir David whether he thought the Scottish Parliament would have to give its consent to measures extinguishing the application of EU law in Scotland. He noted that such measures would entail amendment of section 29 of the Scotland Act 1998, which binds the Scottish Parliament to act in a manner compatible with EU law, and he therefore believed that the Scottish Parliament’s consent would be required. He could envisage certain political advantages being drawn from not giving consent.
We note that the European Communities Act is also entrenched in the devolution settlements of Wales and Northern Ireland. Though we have taken no evidence on this specific point, we have no reason to believe that the requirement for legislative consent for its repeal would not apply to all the devolved nations.
As it turns out, this warning was spot on, because earlier today Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC that the Scottish Parliament could try to block the UK’s exit from the EU. As a reminder, unlike England where the vote went 52% to 48% in Brexit’s favor, in Scotland the picture was vastly different with 62% backing Remain and 38% wanting to go. And as predicted, the Scottish National Party leader, who went through her own UK independence referendum two years ago and is now considering yet another referendum, said that “of course” she would ask MSPs to refuse to give their “legislative consent”.
Scotland’s First Minister @NicolaSturgeon on potentially blocking British exit from EU https://t.co/K6pbNn362q
https://t.co/IquNADYPlX— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 26, 2016
In other words, Scotland’s leader is threatening to break down the very concept of a “Great Britain”, which includes England, Wales and Scotland, and pledge allegiance to the EU, while turning her back on more than half of the English population.
In an interview with the BBC‘s Sunday Politics Scotland program Sturgeon was asked what the Scottish Parliament would do now. Ms …read more
Source: Scotland Threatens To Veto Brexit
