Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 facts about the Brexit vote and Scottish independence
5 facts about the Brexit vote and Scottish independence
May 9, 2025 2:21 PM

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets with members of European Parliament.

On Monday night, Parliament passed a bill allowing Prime Minister Theresa May to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. On the same day, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for Scotland to hold a second referendum on declaring independence from the UK. Here are five facts you should know about these momentous developments within the transatlantic alliance:

1. The bill allows the UK to trigger Brexit at once. The House of Commons voted down two amendments attached by the House of Lords requiring 1) that all EU migrants currently living in the UK be granted permission to remain indefinitely; and 2) that Parliament be allowed to vote after the government finalizes the terms of the Brexit deal. PM May had said that the government had already offered its assurances to migrants, and that while the UK would like to preserve access to the single market, it will depart the EU regardless of the terms imposed by Brussels. “No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,” she has said. Despite 52 percent of British voters supporting Brexit in last June’s referendum, the Supreme Court ruled in January that under the treaty’s terms, a final parliamentary vote was necessary to trigger the nation’s exit.

2. Brexit will pleted within two years. The new bill allows Prime Minister May to notify Brussels that she is triggering the two-year-long process of exiting the EU. Although she could do so immediately, she has consistently said she plans to do so in late March – that date now set for March 27, according to those close to her. The extent to which the UK will have access to the EU single market and freedom from EU regulations remains unknown, but the prime minister of Malta has warned EU negotiators against “punishing any particular country,” and the German finance minister has said, “We don’t want to punish the British for their decision.”

3. Another referendum on Scottish independence is likely within 18 to 24 months. Nearly two-thirds of Scots (62 percent) voted Remain in last June’s Brexit referendum, but the Supreme Court ruled that Westminster did not need to confer with the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. Seeing its views disregarded on EU membership has led First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to say a new referendum is in order in autumn 2018 or spring 2019, just before Brexit negotiations plete. PM May – who has accused Sturgeon of using the vote to “play politics and create uncertainty” – objected that Sturgeon’s Scottish Independence Party described the September 2014 national referendum on independence as a “once in a generation” event which it lost. But the prime minister seems poised to allow the vote to go forward in summer 2019 after EU negotiations plete. She is expected to begin a UK-wide tour to sure up support for Brexit before formally initiating the break with the EU. A Sky News poll found only 30 percent of Scots approve of holding another independence referendum, with 65 percent opposed.

4. If the independence vote were held today, it would fail. Scotland joined the United Kingdom with the Act of Union, adopted on January 16, 1707, and Scottish voters rejected independence just over two years ago by a 54-46 margin. Were the election held today, two polls from BMG and What Scotland Says show the public narrowly rejecting independence again. That decision is in part economic. Scottish trade with the rest of the UK in 2015 amounted to £49.8 billion, and rising, while its trade with the EU was £12.3 billion and £16.4 with the rest of the world.

5. The EU may not admit Scotland at once even if it were an independent nation. After the Brexit referendum, Sturgeon and other Scottish officials had inquired about an independent Scotland taking the UK’s place as a member of the EU, but Brussels balked. The EU’s representative to the UK, Jaqueline Minor, said that Scotland would have to apply for membership under the terms in Article 49, like any other nation. “If Scotland became an independent country, I think Article 49 is the normal starting point,” she said. Should Holyrood follow through, the EU may be unlikely to be admit Scotland at once due to its poor economic circumstances; specifically, its GDP-to-deficit ratio is too high. Under EU rules the deficit must not account for more than three percent of a member state’s GDP, while Scotland’s stands at 9.5 percent of GDP, according to Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland 2015-16 (GERS). Moreover, EU member states must unanimously accede to admitting new members, but Spain may exercise its veto to tamp down nationalist yearnings in its own Catalonia region.

Harms. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Who Pays for Detroit’s Water?
As I was poring over the morning news the other day, it seemed to me that every few days there is another water crisis somewhere; whether it’s California’s drought, or more recently the controversial decision in which the Detroit panies shut off the water supply to over 15,000 customers. But are we really looking at water regulation, appropriation, and the morality of shutting water off in the correct light? Let’s start with some of the basics: Water is essential for...
Distinguishing Capitalism
Last month the New York Times hosted a discussion on the question, “Has Capitalism e patible With Christianity?” There’s lots to be said about the “Room for Debate” feature, including a note on the caption for the lead image in the introduction. The image is a rendering of the classic scene from the Gospels, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple. The NYT caption reads thus: es down hard on the bankers of his day.” Perhaps that’s a bit of ideological balance...
Religion & Liberty: An Interview with Uwe Siemon-Netto
Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of America’s involvement in Vietnam. Uwe Siemon-Netto, a German, and former journalist for United Press International, covered much of the conflict in Vietnam. He has a new and excellent book titled, Triumph of the Absurd: A Reporter’s Love for the Abandoned People of Vietnam. Siemon-Netto is a Lutheran theologian and his extensive background in journalism and theology gives him tremendous credibility in discussing today’s media...
Watch ‘The Economy of Love’ for FREE on Flannel (Today Only)
For today and today only, you can watch Episode 2 of For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles for FREE over at Flannel.org. Produced by the Acton Institute and spread across seven episodes, the series seeks to examine the bigger picture of Christianity’s role in culture, society, and the world. Episode 2 focuses specifically on the Economy of Love, and the grand mystery we find therein. As host Evan Koons concludes: “Family is the first and foundational...
Audio: Elise Hilton on The Manufactured Border Crisis
Elise Hilton has been writing a good deal lately about our manufactured border crisis, and last week Al Kresta, host of Kresta in the Afternoon on the Ave Maria Radio Network, asked Elise to join him on his show to discuss the human tide currently engulfing the southern border of the United States. They discuss the response – or lack thereof – of the Obama Administration to the crisis, the underlying causes of the problem, and how the failures of...
The Economics of Liberation Theology
None of the prominent liberation theologians influential in Latin America had significant training in or exposure to the discipline of economics, says Carroll Ríos de Rodríguez in this week’s Acton Commentary. This was odd given that their concern for the material well-being demanded at least some attempt to provide an economic explanation of underdevelopment and mass poverty. Instead of engaging in such economic reflection, many liberation theologians effectively married their theology to various renderings of what was then the fashionable...
In Memoriam: John Blundell (1952-2014)
The Acton Institute lost a dear friend this week. Historian John Blundell passed away on Tuesday. According to the Atlas Network (where Blundell had served as past president and board member), he will be remembered for his writing. [Blundell] followed his own Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady(2008) with an edited collection, Remembering Margaret Thatcher: Commemorations, Tributes and Assessments(2013). He wrote Ladies For Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History(2nd expanded edition 2013) to also showcase...
In Welfare Systems, Two Plus Two May No Longer Equal Four
“You are a slow learner, Winston.” “How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.” “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to e sane.” – George Orwell, 1984 In a calculation that surely qualifies as “new math,” the government has created an equation in which $29,000...
Our Foster Care System Is Becoming A ‘Pipeline’ For Human Trafficking
At any given time in the U.S., there are about half a million children in foster care. Many of these children are in crisis situations, and will be in foster care for only a short time, returning home or to live with a family member when the crisis has been resolved. Other children, however, remain in the system. The lucky ones will remain in one home, loved and nurtured, possibly even adopted (although for most that can take up to...
Heritage Foundation Releases Index of Culture and Opportunity
The Heritage Foundation has released their 2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity, the first annual report that tells how social and economic factors relate to the success of individuals, families, opportunity, and freedom. Through charts that track changes, mentary that explains the trends, the Index shows the current state of some key features of American society and tells whether specific indicators are improving or getting off track. Here are a few highlights from the report: On Culture From 2001 to...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved