Scottish Parliament vote for second independence referendum

The Scottish Parliament have voted to ask the British government for permission to hold another independence referendum.

Despite the previous referendum being sold as a "once in a generation opportunity," the SNP and Greens have carried the vote by 69 votes to 59 to try and have another go.

Theresa Maybe has been a bit less equivocal over Scottish independence than she has been on the subject of UK independence. She has told wee Jimmy that now is not the time for another independence referendum and they should wait until after Brexit has happened before thinking about another referendum.

There is only one way to settle the subject of Scotland's place in the British union and that is a new union of sovereign nations built on equality not privilege, and consent not compulsion.

SNP warns of Scottish independence if Scotland is "dragged out" of the EU by the English

One of the newly elected SNP MPs, Stewart Malcolm McDonald, has warned that if Scotland is "dragged out of the European Union" on the back of English votes then that could break up the UK.

The SNP decided to lift their self-imposed ban on voting on laws that only affect England and have pledged to interfere comprehensively in English politics to spread their soviet politics south of the border. It's ironic that the SNP should now complain that the votes of 85% of the population in England might carry something that the 8% in Scotland don't want.

The Scots had their chance of independence and they voted against it. If they're not happy with the idea of the rest of the UK voting in a different way to them then that's just tough. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.

If the idea of leaving the European Union that's run for the benefit of Germany and in which Scotland would have no influence whatsoever is so terrible that they would want to leave the British union that's run by and for the Scots then they should make a unilateral declaration of independence and stop trying to tie the other 59m people in the UK into the EU.

There is a way that Scotland can stay in the EU and a British union whilst the rest of the UK gets its independence but it needs 650 small minded politicians to think outside of the box.

Scotland's "no" vote will break the union without fundamental constitutional change

So Scotland has voted no to independence. The no campaigners are celebrating their "victory" but it's a hollow one - 45% of Scots don't want to be part of the UK any more, even with all the promises of more power and money for voting to stay. It was absolutely right that the Scots had their say on how their country is run but it has left a nation divided.

The Scots have had their say and it's now time for the English to have theirs. A large number of promises have been made to the Scots by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband - promises that they can't keep without securing a vote in the Commons. They have promised more power, more money, the continuation of the Barnett Formula in perpetuity and the right to interfere in how England is governed forever. Needless to say, with a general election next year some MPs representing English constituencies have taken issue with all these promises and one promised a "bloodbath" when they get to the voting stage.

All this has prompted David Cameron to announce that only MPs representing English constituencies should be allowed to vote on laws that only affect England, so-called English votes on English laws. This isn't the answer though because it's a fundamentally flawed plan. When the Conservatives first announced English votes on English laws as their policy years ago it took less than a day for an MP elected in Scotland to point out that he would be able to claim an interest in any English law that cost money because it would affect the amount of money Scotland gets. MPs representing Scottish constituencies would be banned from voting on almost nothing at all.

In Scotland they vote for Scottish politicians to sit in a Scottish parliament who are elected to represent Scottish interests. The supposed answer to this for England is to vote for British politicians to sit in the British parliament who are elected to represent British interests who will form a Grand Committee to vote on British laws that only affect England as long as they don't cost money. If English votes on English matters is the answer then they're asking the wrong question.

The only way to make the union fair and equal and stop it being torn apart by jealousy and resentment is to create a devolved English Parliament with the same powers as the Scottish Parliament. Trying to pass off a half-baked fudge that is inherently flawed as being equivalent to the Scottish Parliament is insulting. Which is why it's disappointing to see UKIP promoting the same flawed policy despite having a policy paper written three years ago explaining how an English Parliament would work whilst cutting the number of politicians, saving money and strengthening the union in the process.

Scotland's future has been decided by the Scottish people, now it's time for the people of England to decide their future and I hope that UKIP sees sense and plays a part in making that happen.

Whatever Scotland decides, it's time for an English Parliament

The Scots will vote in their first ever independence referendum tomorrow and it's statistically neck and neck. Most polls have a 3% margin of error and there's less than a 3% gap in two of the five polls conducted in the last 30 days and a whopping 7% in favour of independence in one.

	Yes	No	Don't Know
Survation	42%	48%	10%
TNS-BRMB	38%	39%	23%
YouGov	45%	50%	6%
ICM	49%	42%	9%
Panelbase	46%	47%	7%

The referendum really could go either way but whatever the result the next piece of business that needs taking care of is how England is governed. This is something that should have been taken care of in 1997 when the Scots and Welsh voted for their devolved governments but that didn't suit the regionalisation agenda so the union has been left seriously unbalanced for more than a decade.

Gordon Brown on Monday demanded guarantees that Scotland would have a say in how England (or "the regions" as he calls England) is run if they vote no tomorrow, that England's wealth would continue to be redistributed to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and that the Barnett Formula which subsidises Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will remain in place forever. David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg all agreed to those demands yesterday.

David Cameron is facing a revolt by his own MPs after agreeing to Gordon Brown's demands and promising more powers for Scotland with nothing for England. Some Tory MPs have promised a "bloodbath" if he tries to get the extra powers through the British parliament and several Tory MPs have said they want to ban MPs elected in Scotland from voting on things only affecting England. This means an English Parliament would have to be created because anything that costs money affects the amount of money available for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get, thus giving their MPs a vote on it.

Social media and the comments sections on newspaper websites and blogs are awash with outrage at the promises being made to Scotland and demands for an English Parliament. UKIP has long had a policy of redressing the balance with an English Parliament of sorts, first with the daft English votes on English laws idea that could never work and lately for a devolved English Parliament. Nigel Farage has said many times that UKIP would create a devolved English Parliament and Paul Nuttall wrote a policy paper on how it would work. It has always been sidelined at the last minute by whichever Big Britisher has been in charge of policy but now is the time to dust off Paul Nuttall's policy on an English Parliament and show the people of England that we really are the peoples' party, listening to what they want and promising to act on it.

Scottish independence will save the union

UKIP Daily has an article giving a few reasons why UKIP should welcome Scottish independence and I can't disagree with any of them but there is one reason for your average UKIPper that they've missed: Scottish independence will preserve the British union.

You'd think the union consisted of just England and Scotland the way the unionist campaigners keep trotting out doom-laden prophecies about the end of the union but there are four countries in the UK, not two. If Scotland votes for independence this week then the UK will continue to exist without Scotland but if they vote no the union is doomed.

The British unionist parties had already promised the Scots extensive new powers if they voted no to independence and then they promised even more when the first opinion poll showed a slim majority for the yes camp. It is this commitment to keeping Scotland in the union at all costs (as long as England is paying of course) that will destroy the union if they vote no to independence.

A 2007 opinion poll by ICM found that support for English independence went from statistically zero to 15% in the decade following the creation of the Scottish Parliament and that's a symptom of the discriminatory way that devolution was introduced in the UK to exclude England. Since 1997, the English have become increasingly resentful of the preferential treatment Scotland (and to a lesser extent, Wales and Northern Ireland) gets. If Scotland votes no to independence then the more they get whilst England is ignored - or worse, threatened with being broken up into artificial regions - the more strained the union is going to be.

If the Scots vote to stay in the union then this resentment will bring the union crashing to an end. If, on the other hand, the Scots vote to leave the union the main cause of resentment will be gone and the future of what remains of the union will be more secure. Even though Wales and Northern Ireland both have their own devolved governments like Scotland does and they both get a big subsidy like Scotland does (Northern Ireland gets far more per capita than either Scotland or Wales) it only seem to be the Scots having their cake and eating it that bothers the English. Maintaining the status quo without Scotland is unlikely to be a problem for the increasingly restless English electorate.

Unionists have nothing to far from Scottish independence because it will save the union.

Barroso tells BBC it could be impossible for Scotland to join the EU.

Emperor Barroso has told the BBC that it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for Scotland to become a member of the EU if it declares independence from the UK.

The SNP's stance on the EU is frankly bizarre - they want to swap a British union dominated by Scots and Scottish interests for a European Union in which it would be a tiny, insignificant voice. Despite being told several times that their belief that they will automatically be given EU membership is incorrect, they continue to plan for a future in which Scotland breezes into the EU and nobody makes them join the €uro.

Personally, I would be happy to see Scotland declare independence. The Scottish people never wanted union with England in the first place and they never took to Britishness the way the English did. The relationship between the two countries has always been strained with the 700 year old Battle of Bannockburn being invoked in most "debates" about Anglo-Scottish relations as if it was still a raw wound. The battle for independence should be won honestly though, not by bluff and bluster which is what the SNP is coming out with now.

As the independence referendum gets closer, the wheels are coming off the SNP's wagon. The Tories, Labour and Lib Dems have all pledged to block any currency union with Scotland which was one of Alex Salmond's key pledges for an independent Scotland along with EU membership, a budget surplus, not taking on a share of the British national debt and some other pie in the sky stuff. Most Scots know they can't afford independence even if they want it and the SNP's habit of making promises it can't keep won't help change their minds.

Scotland's EU membership is assured under international law

The SNP has had a warning shot fired across the bows of the SS Independence by the EU, much to the delight of unionists.  But how worried should the pro-independence lot be?

The EU has said that an independent Scotland would have to negotiate EU membership if it splits from the UK.  The unionists have jumped on this are happily warning the Scots that not only will they lose the security of the British union if they vote for independence but they will lose the security of the European union as well.  Unfortunately for them it was't Scotland that was being referred to but Catalonia although the principal is much the same.

There are a couple of questions the British nationalists need to ask about this before they start pontificating at the SNP.  The most obvious one is what are the EU actually saying?  Emperor Barosso said that EU citizenship for Catalonian (and therefore Scottish) residents would have to be "negotiated within the international legal order".  The assumption being made about this statement is that Barosso is saying Scotland would have to negotiate its membership as if it was any other country wanting to join.

And what of this negotiating within the international legal order?  International law is quite clear on what happens when one state secedes from another.  The assumption is that all states will become successors where treaties are concerned with all the rights and obligations they entail.  Scotland will remain a party to any international treaties the UK is a party to now if it secedes from the UK under international law.

The idea of the EU turning down a membership application is laughable, especially when the application is from a socialist, europhile country with oil and fish.  The EU is likely to screw concessions out of Scotland in exchange for making the process smoother such as putting a time limit on the opt out from the €uro and Schengen and giving the EU control over Scottish oil and gas and Alex Salmond will give it all to them because he doesn't have a plan that doesn't involve EU membership.

Cabinet Reshuffe buries SNP independence referendum bill

The deckchairs on the SS ConDemned have been reshuffled and the newly rearranged cabinet looks like this ...

Wee Willy Vague stays on as Foreign Secretary, a reward for abandoning his principles in support of his lying, cheating boss.  George Osborne is staying on as Chancellor despite having no ideas beyond borrowing more and more money and Theresa May is safe as Home Secretary as a pay-off for spinning the insignificant and pointless non-EU immigration targets (which are being missed) as the answer to the immigration time bomb.  Philip Hammond has kept his job in Defence for covering up defence underfunding and the outsourcing of defence contracts from England to Scotland.

Chris Grayling has been promoted to Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Injustice having served out his time as Employment Minister rather limply doing nothing of note to combat unemployment.  Europhile nutjob, Ken Clarke, has been given a Prescottesque non-job as a minister without portfolio advising Cameron on economic policy.  Clarke believes we should join the €uro.  Enough said!

Jeremy Hunt has been shunted into the Department for Health after making a hash as Culture Minister when he was caught out telling people he was going to block Rupert Murdoch's buy-out of News International when he was supposed to be an impartial arbitrator.

Andrew Lansley has been bumped up to Leader of the Commons having earned his leaders' loyalty driving through privatisation of the health service in England.  Michael Gove stays in the Department for Education despite coming under criticism for lying about selling off school playing fields in England and allowing discredited climate change and pro-EU propaganda to be taught in schools.

Vince Cable stays on as Business Secretary - an appointment that seems to make sense on paper as he has a background in economics but in reality he has shown himself to be an anti-business, high tax socialist.  Iain Duncan Smith also stays on in the DWP presiding over disastrous tinkering to the welfare state without doing anything to fix the benefits system or get people doing something constructive.

Ed Davey has kept his job peddling climate change propaganda, killing elderly and vulnerable people with "green" taxes and doing nothing to address the impending electricity shortages.  Danny Alexander also stays on as Chief Secretary to the Treasury giving him more opportunities to asset-strip England whilst driving the economy further into recession.  Alexander was responsible for the attempt to sell off English forests and was prepared to rewrite the English constitution to allow it but like the hypocrite he is, actively campaigned against proposals to sell forests in his own constituency in Scotland.

Michael Moore has been promoted into the part time post of Scottish Secretary and may be the last British MP to hold the post if the SNP's independence referendum goes their way.  Patrick McLoughlin has been moved into the Ministry of Transport where he is expected to smooth the way for a third runway at Heathrow and snub Boris Johnson's alternative proposal for an airport in the Thames.

Eric Pickles is staying on as Communities and English Local Government Secretary where he can continue to stall genuine localism and maintain the top-down command structure the big state Tories love.  Dominic Grieve has moved into the post of Attorney General - a job that he is actually pretty well qualified for but his opposition to devolution and knowledge of constitutional affairs are the most likely reasons for his appointment ahead of the Scottish independence referendum.

Maria Miller has been promoted to English Culture, Media and Sport Secretary where she will oversee the mythical "legacy" of the Olympics, giving away venues paid for by the taxpayer to private companies to run at a profit.  Grant Shapps has been promoted to Party Chairman, a job which normally only results in a cabinet position in places like China and Cuba.  Owen Paterson has been moved out of the Northern Ireland Office into DEFRA where his farming background and rural constituency may bring some common sense to the environmental agenda but his promotion is probably at the cost of his principles.

Justine Greening has been put in charge of International Development having been moved out of the Department for Transport for her opposition to the expansion of Heathrow Airport.  Andrew Mitchell is a Camerloon and has been promoted to Chief Whip, responsible for bullying and threatening MPs into doing as they're told.

Theresa Villiers has been moved out of Transport where she consistently underwhelmed to the Northern Ireland Office.  She was heavily criticised for claiming second home expenses for a house 8 minutes away from a tube station.  Former Welsh AM, David Jones, has been promoted from within the Welsh Office to Welsh Secretary much to the delight of Welsh Tory MPs who disliked the idea of an MP elected in England holding the part time Welsh Secretary job.  Lord Strathclyde stays on as Leader of the House of Lords.

So, a rather underwhelming cabinet reshuffle which will give us more of the same incompetence and duplicity.  As for Cameron's Cast Iron Guarantee™ to make his cabinet one third female ... well, that's gone the same way as his Cast Iron Guarantee™ to hold an EU referendum.

Whilst the cabinet reshuffle itself is less than inspiring, the timing is interesting.  The SNP announced its legislative programme for the coming year today, including a proposed date for the Scottish independence referendum.  What's that you say?  You didn't see anything in the news about it?  Anyone would think the timing of the cabinet reshuffle was deliberate.

Scotland will never be independent under Salmond

Whether you like or agree with Alex Salmond, you can't deny that the man is a political genius.

It took the SNP 73 years to come to power in Scotland, having been formed in 1934 and finally winning a majority in the Scottish Parliament they were instrumental in bringing into being in 2007.  The SNP under Alex Salmond has gone from strength to strength and their success shows no signs of abating.

Salmond has managed to convince a sizeable proportion of the Scottish population that Scotland would be better off out of the UK.  He's convinced them that the Bank of England will continue to use English taxes to bail them out when they get into trouble and he's convinced them that Scotland will be financially secure for all time living off the proceeds of windmills and what's left of north sea oil and gas (conveniently ignoring the fact that a lot of it is under expropriated English waters).

He's convinced them of a lot of things, including the idea that leaving a union in which they have a disproportionate amount of power and influence and joining another union in which they will be a political and economic insignificance is a better future for their nation - the EU.

Personally, I don't care if Scotland declares independence if that's what the Scots decide to do - it's their country and their decision.  I'm English, not British, and my country would be infinitely better off without the burden of financially supporting the rest of the union and having to pander to increasingly demanding celts.  However, the Scots should be going into this with their eyes open and not under the mistaken impression that their bills will continue to be paid for them, that they can pick and choose the terms of our divorce and that independence within the EU is anything but.

Salmond is still making a big assumption that Scotland will automatically qualify for EU membership and that they will be able to dictate the terms of their relationship the EU just as they have with England.  He has previously said that an independent Scotland will keep the pound with the Bank of England staying on as the central bank and lender of last resort (England, Wales and NI apparently don't have a say in this in Salmond's private little universe) but of course any nation joining the EU now has to adopt the failing single currency.

He says "Of the 10 countries that joined the European Union in 2004, a majority have become independent since 1990, and Scotland is bigger than six of them.  Each and every one of these nations now has a seat at Europe’s top table: a right they cherish – a right Scotland too should embrace".  But here's the thing: the EU has already said that there is no automatic right of membership for Scotland if it leaves the UK but the SNP continues to base Scotland's future on membership of the EU which it has no automatic right to and which it will have to negotiate from the weakest possible position, having told the world that it has no plans for the future that don't involve joining.

If Scotland wants automatic membership of the EU then they need to hold out for a complete dissolution of the British union where the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties would apply and Scotland could choose to take on the UK's membership as successor state.  That would certainly suit the majority of English people who want out of the EU and the majority of Scots who want to stay in it.  The only people who would be disappointed would be the europhile minority in England, the eurosceptic minority in Scotland and British nationalist minority on both sides of the border.

All of this is a little academic because Scotland won't vote for independence but the more rope Alex Salmond is given, the more his europhillia hangs him.