John Swinney: Scottish independence referendum will happen soon
John Swinney: Scottish independence referendum will happen soon
“Now the way to sort Brexit is for Scotland to become an independent country and rejoin the European Union, that will open up economic opportunities for our country.
“It will, crucially, allow us to have our approach to migration which will actually be in our economic interests other than the folly that’s been pursued by the UK Government.”
Look, I supported Scottish independence last time round, i cannot stand the UK government and it's inevitable direction towards Farage and his bullshit. I don't know how cutting off our best possible trading partner, the only one we currently and will ever share a border with, England, in favour of the EU will actually help us. I can't remember the figures but our trade is something like 90% with England, but England doesn't rely on us for anything, so they'd be immediately in a stronger position at the negotiating table. I really don't know how I'd vote now. My heart says yes to independence, my head says no.
Besides all of that, the SNP have been dangling this carrot for years, I'll believe it when I see it. We've heard this many times since the last referendum.
Could it be possible for Scotland to gain independence while maintaining good trade relations with England?
Of course, but that requires both sides to actually want that. The rest of UK will not want this to work for the same reason that the EU didn't want Brexit to work, it gives other nations ideas about leaving. Even the SNP doesn't really want it to go perfectly because they'll lose their scapegoat that has given them power for over 15 years.