Why Alex Salmond is Wrong About the indyref2 Case
At one time Alex Salmond would have been delighted to have the question of an independence referendum for Scotland be heard before the Supreme Court. Now the former leader of the Scottish National Party is critical of the approach taken by the government in Holyrood.
In a speech to his new Alba party he said:
“If against all expectations the Scottish case was to prevail what exactly would have been won - the right to conduct a poll which the lord advocate's own submissions rested on the argument that it would have no practical effect.”
That is technically true but is also the case for all referendums that have been held in this country. Our system of parliamentary sovereignty requires Westminster to act upon any result with a piece of legislation before it becomes law.
So far the government has always followed the will of the people but would it do so if the Scottish bill passed and the people of Scotland voted ‘yes’?
It is certainly possible that the UK government would choose to ignore the result entirely. After all, they are opposing the legitimacy of the Bill in the Supreme Court and they could continue to do so even if the final decision does not go their way. Other referendums have been allowed to take place because of the prerogative enjoyed by Westminster.
Nevertheless I think a vote for independence, even in those circumstances, would be difficult to ignore. An expression of the will of the people of Scotland represents a strong mandate for change and the longer the UK government prevaricated about the result, the weaker the union would become.
Ultimately this might be something of a moot point because I think the arguments put forward by the Advocate General for Scotland only have a relatively slim chance of success before the Supreme Court. Nevertheless this is a battle that extends beyond the courtroom and strikes at a fundamental aspect of international law: the right to self-determination.
Despite the win for the union in 2014, the question of Scottish independence is not going away and, given factors like the support enjoyed by the SNP and the state of politics in Westminster, the case for Scotland going it alone appears stronger than ever.
Alex Salmond might be right that the Supreme Court case isn’t going anywhere but it keeps the question of independence in the headlines and so, in that sense, it is a success.
This week in the podcast we review one of the largest judgments that the Supreme Court has handed down. It deals with an important question about how much consideration should be given to creditors when a company is on the verge of insolvency.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2022-uksc-25/
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Marcus