In an address to the Scottish Parliament the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, has outlined his plans for a referendum on Scotland's constitutional future.
This government was elected with a popular mandate to put the question of Scotland's future to the vote in a referendum.
It is time for the people of Scotland to have their say. Not everyone will agree with our vision for the future, we know that.
But the people of Scotland must be heard. This parliament should not stand in their way - let the people speak.
As the leader of a minority government Salmond knows that he requires the support of the other parties in order to fulfill the SNP's pledge of delivering to the people of Scotland a referendum on independence.
Will the Scottish Parliament kill off the Scottish Government's Referendum Bill and prevent them from holding their flagship vote on independence?
I only voted no, because I think the unionist parties will try and use the ensuing referendum to kill independence off for another decade.
Let the English people speak.
The breakup of the United Kingdom is a matter on which all British Subjects should have an equal vote.
The constitutional question needs to be settled for all of the people in the UK once and for all. Every nation of the UK should have a vote to determine whether their people wish to remain in union with the other nations or not. Any nations that vote for independence should then be able to begin negotiations with the UK government to determine the terms of secession, which in England's case will mean setting up a body to speak on England's behalf first. If two or more nations vote to remain in the UK then the union continues for those nations. If only one nation votes in favour of the union continuing, the union ends and they will have to live with the decision made by the other nations. If that nation happens to be Northern Ireland a further referendum would be required to determine whether they wish to become a sovereign state or whether they wish to proceed with negotiations to merge with the Republic of Ireland to form a new Irish state, subject to the people of the RoI agreeing to that course of action.
Once this is settled we can then move on and have a normal relationship with each other and even work towards a nordic style confederation with sovereignty pooled where common interests occur and a united voice would be beneficial, but sovereignty will ultimately lie with the national governments of the historic nations of these isles, not as now where sovereignty is retained in the iron fist of the bogus "nation" of Britain.
The UK never existed and never will. It existed in the minds of the English simply because they were naive enough to believe that other members of the UK wanted the same. We now know, that after many years, even centuries, that we were wrong. It's time to hold our hands up and surrender. Independence for the whole of Ireland (if they want the North and if the North want them), Wales, Scotland and above all England.
That's what they want, let them have it. It's a done deal, we just need to tick a few boxes. I know where my tick will go.
No the unionists will not be able to kill off a referendum on scottish independence.The scots have been asked a number of times already what they want and I can see no reason why they should be refused this time.
Well maybe my comments were inappropriate to the question posed. So to sum it up, I couldn't give a damn, I don't care what they want.
I believe the forces of unionism are so entrenched in the UK (a throwback to the old imperialist ideals, think of that football brass band mentioned here before and their Rule Britannia) that the referendum will not happen.
My guess is that the Scottish Parliament will kill off the Referendum Bill. The Referendum Bill displays perfectly Salmond's political nous. He knows that, whether the Bill is passed or not, the issue defines Scottish politics in exactly the way the SNP wants.
It puts a time bomb under unionism’s most hallowed dictum that there is no alternative. In the service of this, unionism musters the whole panoply of custom and received wisdom. This bill cocks a snoop at all that and in the process teaches Scots not to be mesmerised by it, which is why the unionists parties want to kill it off as quickly as possible.
It's a difficult question for the Lib-Lab-Cons because it will come down to strategy.
Is it better to hold a referendum with a Conservative Government in power in Westminster which will probably boost the yes vote in Scotland or is it better to refuse it even though it will probably boost the SNP's vote in the next Scottish elections.
Since the "Scottish" Conservative, Lib-Dem and Labour parties are not separate parties but simply regional branches then the decision on supporting a Scottish referendum will be made not by Annabel Goldie, Tavish Scott or Iain Gray but by David Cameron, Nick Clegg or by Gordon Brown and to be honest Scotland is not at the top of their priorities. I think they will go for the, "wait and hope it goes away option".
P.S If you're interested Jack McConnell the former Labour First Minister of Scotland is taking questions on devolution in Northern Ireland tomorrow, 07/09/09, and Slugger O'Toole is looking for questions. I've already put a few in.
"English Republic" echoes my views. I think the Referendum will be held simply because there is a majority view amongst the Scottish people to do so, both Unionist and Nationalist alike.
Deliberately going against that view will only harm the Lib-Lab-Con still further and so ultimately they will have to buckle.
The real fight will be to get them to concede the same right of a vote to the rest of the Union - and it is probably this that this is the real sticking point and the real reason why they don't want to "bring it on".