THE Scottish Government has published a new paper setting out the case for Scottish independence.
In his foreword to the paper, First Minister John Swinney said that for decades, politicians of all stripes had “supported the idea that it is for the people who live in Scotland alone to make the choice about the future of Scotland as a country”.
The paper sets out the Scottish Government’s position that Scotland is in a voluntary union with the other nations of the United Kingdom, that the Scottish people alone have the right to decide their constitutional future and that Scots must have a mechanism by which they can exercise this right.
It draws on quotations from former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Theresa May (below) to support its argument and blasts the UK Government for the “erosion of respect for devolution and the continued bypassing of the Scottish Parliament” since Brexit.
The paper also rehearses arguments that Scotland should have the same constitutional get-out clause afforded to Northern Ireland, which has a mechanism for calling a border poll if the Secretary of State believes there is public appetite for one.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously ruled out granting a second independence referendum.
Swinney said: “Given the failure of the UK economic model, I believe people in Scotland deserve the right to decide once again whether it is better for decisions about their lives to continue to be taken at Westminster, or whether they are best taken here in Scotland.
“Of course, as a country, after hearing all the arguments, we may decide that things are best left as they are: that would be a legitimate democratic choice.
“But so would a decision for Scotland to become a true equal partner with our friends in the rest of the UK, as a nation state, with all the economic and social powers that come with statehood.”
Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson (below) added: “Figures and institutions with very different political outlooks have long supported the idea that it is for people who live in Scotland to decide our country’s future.
“The United Kingdom is a democracy, so there must be a way by which the people of Scotland can exercise their right to decide if there should be a change to its constitutional status.”
Its publication will reignite the debate on the Scottish Government spending money on the independence debate.
As part of last year’s Budget negotiations, the LibDems secured a guarantee that the Scottish Government would axe its series of papers setting out the case for independence, which was seized on by the Unionist press as proof ministers had agreed to abandon spending on the constitutional question.
The Scottish Government has since insisted that there is “no dedicated budget line for independence work” after a report in the Scottish Daily Express which claimed constitutional matters had a £5.6 million budget was dismissed as “inaccurate”.
