SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon delivers a speech to the media at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, after the SNP won 47 seats, up from the 35 they won two years ago, making it the party's second best Westminster result ever. (Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)
After Scotland Decisively Rejects Brexit and the Tories in General Election, SNP's Sturgeon Calls for Second Independence Referendum
"Given what I fear the Tory government now has in store for Scotland, that right to choose our own future has never been more important or more urgent."
Dec 12, 2019
Hours after celebrating her party's decisive showing and Scotland's rejection of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom's general election Thursday, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday said she would move to put forward a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) won 47 of Scotland's 59 seats in British Parliament Thursday night, with the Tories holding onto just six seats, Labour maintaining one, and the center-left Liberal Democrat party holding onto four seats.
"I have just won an election on the strength of the argument that it's Scotland's right to choose," Sturgeon said Thursday night as she celebrated SNP's landslide.
Sturgeon elaborated on the mandate Friday morning at a podium marked with the words "Scotland's Choice," saying Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson must give Scotland the power to vote on independence.
"I accept regretfully that [Johnson] has a mandate for Brexit in England. But he has no mandate whatsoever to take Scotland out of the European Union... Scotland's future must be in Scotland's hands," Sturgeon said. "Given what I fear the Tory government now has in store for Scotland, that right to choose our own future has never been more important or more urgent."
Sturgeon said she had directed the Scottish government to "publish the detailed democratic case for a transfer of power to enable a referendum to be put beyond legal challenge."
The SNP plans to begin moving toward a referendum next week.
Thursday's election results came five years after Scotland's first independence referendum failed, with 55% of Scots voting to remain in the United Kingdom.
Nearly two years after the first referendum in 2014, Scottish voters decisively voted "Remain" in the first vote on the Conservative' Brexit plan.
The first minister pointed out that Tories in Scotland had run almost exclusively on a message of opposing a Scottish independence referendum.
The rejection of that message was "a strong endorsement...of not having to put up with a Conservative government we didn't vote for and not having to accept life as a nation outside the EU," Sturgeon said.
On social media, other supporters of Scottish independence expressed support for Sturgeon's referendum plan.
It means take bolt cutters to the border if you have to Scotland, but just get out of this toxic union. #IndyRef2 https://t.co/BSXFWMe5de
-- Kerry-Anne Mendoza (@TheMendozaWoman) December 13, 2019
After four years of radio silence on Twitter, the Scottish national youth campaign for independence announced its return with a concise message:
As Sturgeon signaled that an independence referendum is likely on the horizon, Ireland's left-wing Sinn Fein party--after winning a majority of Parliament seats--called on the Irish government to "immediately plan for Irish unity" and the British government "to set out in clear and unambiguous terms the circumstance in which a British secretary of state will call a referendum on Irish unity."
Both Ireland and Scotland's signaling of a shift away from the U.K. Brexit plan left some observers considering a possible break-up of the United Kingdom.
"England doesn't care if it loses Scotland and reunites Ireland as long as it gets its Brexit," said one pro-Scottish independence group. "So be it, say Scotland and Ireland."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Hours after celebrating her party's decisive showing and Scotland's rejection of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom's general election Thursday, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday said she would move to put forward a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) won 47 of Scotland's 59 seats in British Parliament Thursday night, with the Tories holding onto just six seats, Labour maintaining one, and the center-left Liberal Democrat party holding onto four seats.
"I have just won an election on the strength of the argument that it's Scotland's right to choose," Sturgeon said Thursday night as she celebrated SNP's landslide.
Sturgeon elaborated on the mandate Friday morning at a podium marked with the words "Scotland's Choice," saying Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson must give Scotland the power to vote on independence.
"I accept regretfully that [Johnson] has a mandate for Brexit in England. But he has no mandate whatsoever to take Scotland out of the European Union... Scotland's future must be in Scotland's hands," Sturgeon said. "Given what I fear the Tory government now has in store for Scotland, that right to choose our own future has never been more important or more urgent."
Sturgeon said she had directed the Scottish government to "publish the detailed democratic case for a transfer of power to enable a referendum to be put beyond legal challenge."
The SNP plans to begin moving toward a referendum next week.
Thursday's election results came five years after Scotland's first independence referendum failed, with 55% of Scots voting to remain in the United Kingdom.
Nearly two years after the first referendum in 2014, Scottish voters decisively voted "Remain" in the first vote on the Conservative' Brexit plan.
The first minister pointed out that Tories in Scotland had run almost exclusively on a message of opposing a Scottish independence referendum.
The rejection of that message was "a strong endorsement...of not having to put up with a Conservative government we didn't vote for and not having to accept life as a nation outside the EU," Sturgeon said.
On social media, other supporters of Scottish independence expressed support for Sturgeon's referendum plan.
It means take bolt cutters to the border if you have to Scotland, but just get out of this toxic union. #IndyRef2 https://t.co/BSXFWMe5de
-- Kerry-Anne Mendoza (@TheMendozaWoman) December 13, 2019
After four years of radio silence on Twitter, the Scottish national youth campaign for independence announced its return with a concise message:
As Sturgeon signaled that an independence referendum is likely on the horizon, Ireland's left-wing Sinn Fein party--after winning a majority of Parliament seats--called on the Irish government to "immediately plan for Irish unity" and the British government "to set out in clear and unambiguous terms the circumstance in which a British secretary of state will call a referendum on Irish unity."
Both Ireland and Scotland's signaling of a shift away from the U.K. Brexit plan left some observers considering a possible break-up of the United Kingdom.
"England doesn't care if it loses Scotland and reunites Ireland as long as it gets its Brexit," said one pro-Scottish independence group. "So be it, say Scotland and Ireland."
Hours after celebrating her party's decisive showing and Scotland's rejection of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom's general election Thursday, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday said she would move to put forward a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) won 47 of Scotland's 59 seats in British Parliament Thursday night, with the Tories holding onto just six seats, Labour maintaining one, and the center-left Liberal Democrat party holding onto four seats.
"I have just won an election on the strength of the argument that it's Scotland's right to choose," Sturgeon said Thursday night as she celebrated SNP's landslide.
Sturgeon elaborated on the mandate Friday morning at a podium marked with the words "Scotland's Choice," saying Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson must give Scotland the power to vote on independence.
"I accept regretfully that [Johnson] has a mandate for Brexit in England. But he has no mandate whatsoever to take Scotland out of the European Union... Scotland's future must be in Scotland's hands," Sturgeon said. "Given what I fear the Tory government now has in store for Scotland, that right to choose our own future has never been more important or more urgent."
Sturgeon said she had directed the Scottish government to "publish the detailed democratic case for a transfer of power to enable a referendum to be put beyond legal challenge."
The SNP plans to begin moving toward a referendum next week.
Thursday's election results came five years after Scotland's first independence referendum failed, with 55% of Scots voting to remain in the United Kingdom.
Nearly two years after the first referendum in 2014, Scottish voters decisively voted "Remain" in the first vote on the Conservative' Brexit plan.
The first minister pointed out that Tories in Scotland had run almost exclusively on a message of opposing a Scottish independence referendum.
The rejection of that message was "a strong endorsement...of not having to put up with a Conservative government we didn't vote for and not having to accept life as a nation outside the EU," Sturgeon said.
On social media, other supporters of Scottish independence expressed support for Sturgeon's referendum plan.
It means take bolt cutters to the border if you have to Scotland, but just get out of this toxic union. #IndyRef2 https://t.co/BSXFWMe5de
-- Kerry-Anne Mendoza (@TheMendozaWoman) December 13, 2019
After four years of radio silence on Twitter, the Scottish national youth campaign for independence announced its return with a concise message:
As Sturgeon signaled that an independence referendum is likely on the horizon, Ireland's left-wing Sinn Fein party--after winning a majority of Parliament seats--called on the Irish government to "immediately plan for Irish unity" and the British government "to set out in clear and unambiguous terms the circumstance in which a British secretary of state will call a referendum on Irish unity."
Both Ireland and Scotland's signaling of a shift away from the U.K. Brexit plan left some observers considering a possible break-up of the United Kingdom.
"England doesn't care if it loses Scotland and reunites Ireland as long as it gets its Brexit," said one pro-Scottish independence group. "So be it, say Scotland and Ireland."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.