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A Yes or No vote won't settle it. This debate will run and run



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An independence referendum is unlikely to produce a definitive answer to our country's future, says ALAN TRENCH

WHAT will a referendum vote actually decide? It will open new debates, not end them – and will probably lead to another one afterwards.

In all the furore about a referendum on Scottish independence, some key questions have been overlooked. Ques...



The full article contains 962 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 13 May 2008 8:52 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Jwil,

14/05/2008 02:04:57
The article has some fair points in it, but if the principle of independence is established first then all these concerns you have can be taken into account. If there is determination to make it happen, it will happen. There are too many doomsayers who are more concerned with putting up obstacles. Mainly unionists who do not want it to happen.
2

bill-alba,

Fife 14/05/2008 11:09:49
Why on earth would we want two referendums? the one would be more than clear I think this is the next unionist ploy.....we are sleep walking to independence, we do not know what independence means,lets go for a federal solution, we will need more than one referendum, all the countries in the UK should have a say.
3

Douglas Eckhart,

Edinburgh 14/05/2008 14:21:55
Can anybody tell us if it is the historical norm for a nation to have multiple positive referendums in order to become independent?

If not, why should Scotland be the exception? If this was argued by Westminster then I would take this issue to the UN.

4

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 14/05/2008 18:05:53
So Alan Trench agrees that the Scottish Government has the power to call a referendum on opening negotiations on independence. I have been saying that for a long time. That would apply only to starting negotiations, and not to the result. There would be no need for London approval for such a referendum, which could be undertaken entirely on Scottish initiative.

Bear in mind, though, that no referendum can be purely consultative. By its very nature it is a process whereby a government passes an issue "upstairs" to its constitutional superior for a decision (or is anyone going to argue that a government or parliament exercises sovereignty over the people who elect it). Its result must be binding.

Incidentally, if my memory is correct it was the Scots who took over a share of the English national debt in 1707, not the reverse.

5

Hugh V McLachlan,

Elderslie 14/05/2008 22:11:30
#4 Dr James Wilkie

'...if my memory is correct it was the Scots who took over a share of the English national debt in 1707, not the reverse.'

You must be a very old man.

'...is anyone going to argue that a government or parliament exercises sovereignty over the people who elect it.'

Yes, I would argue that, with the qualification that sovereignty is not absolute nor does it cover all spheres. In certain respects, parliament is the supreme authority. By convention, we have a particular process to elect MPs but the authority of Parliament does not derive merely from that. It derives in part from the consequences of the deliberations of parliament. We vote in constituencies rather than en masse. What the majority of the electorate vote for or would vote for at any particular time is, in my view, a statistical curiosity and it has no constitutional significance.
6

Scotindy,

Los Angeles 14/05/2008 23:44:04
Working on Allen Trench's theory, then Glasgow Rangers can say that the Russians did not win today by 2/0 so therefore we have to go back and keep going back until the result suites US! The man is a fruitcake, if the pro Independence lobby Win by One vote then we are INDEPENDENT. BRING IT ALL ON.
7

Richardinho,

15/05/2008 00:11:29
Yes, a settlement would be difficult and possibly messy-but to fall back on 'this looks hard, let's not do it', is childish and abnigates responsibility. If the outcome is good, then a hard path to achieve it is worthwhile.

incidentally, I believe that actually running a country day to day is complicated too!

 

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