Fairdealfrank: The Spanish foreign minister has said that Spain would not veto Scottish membership of the EU because the referendum has been approved by the UK government. Catalonia is a different situation because the referendum is being carried out without the approval of the Spanish government and it is in breach of the Spanish constitution. No other EU country has suggested that it would veto Scottish membership. The scare stories to that effect lack any substance or credibility.
I'm not sure what the situations are in relation to Italy, France and Belgium but the key issue with Scotland is that the referendum is being held with the agreement of the UK government who have agreed to abide by the democratic outcome. Why would any EU country want to veto Scottish membership in such circumstances? To do so would be illogical and anti-democratic, vindictive and vexatious.
Where exactly in my post does the word “veto” appear, Porrohman? Have reread my post a couple of times, can’t find it.
AFAIK, there is only one applicant country to the EU that has ever been vetoed (twice). Not even Turkey, a country that does not have a cat in hell’s chance of joining the EU, has had its application vetoed.
As for Catalonia, it is not a case of "
the referendum is being carried out without the approval of the Spanish government and it is in breach of the Spanish constitution". The central government have stopped it and it is not going ahead (for now at least).
Here is the text:
"From an "ever closer union" point of view, it is likely that EU establishment would want a separate Scotland to join the EU pretty quickly. Some EU countries have secessionist issues of their own, they may not be so keen."
Think it’s reasonably accurate, "not so keen" does not equal "veto".
I feel exactly the same way about the currency issue. Osborne, Balls and Alexander all prefixed their recent statements by saying that they would be "unable to recommend" a currency union. Recommend to who? The PM? Parliament? What seems clear from their carefully coordinated choice of words is that the ultimate decision is not theirs. They will make a recommendation, not the ultimate decision. The following Monday, Cameron said in an interview that the currency union was "under threat". He could have said "out of the question" or words to that effect but he didn't.
The currency union issue is an interesting one. Not having a Scottish currency means the country would not be properly independent, many countries in the Mediterreanan are good examples of this currently.
In a currency union between a separated Scotland and the rest of the UK, the UK calls the shots, no question.
The most disturbing thing about the referendum campaign is that there is not a single mainstream media outlet in Scotland that is pro-independence. The UK mainstream media is almost entirely anti-independence too. It's a very dangerous thing for democracy when the entire mainstream media takes the some political stance on an issue. Normally such a situation would only occur in a country where the media is state controlled. For it to happen in a supposedly free democracy is somewhat unusual to put it mildly.
The media cannot be
forced to favour the breakup of the UK. If they are against, they will say so.
Interesting post, Porrohman, don’t agree with all of it. Do you get to vote?
This is such an important vote, yet 90% of the UK’s population cannot have a say on whether the UK gets broken up.
Am with David Bowie on this one.
For years the Scots have complained about darker mornings if the clocks were moved forward, which has stopped the rest of the UK having lighter evenings. If Scotland got its independence I can see no reason why the rest of the UK could not move their clocks to European time so leaving Scotland in a different time zone to the rest of Europe and the UK. If the Scots didn't like it then they have to choose whether they would follow the UK.
It’s not a case of Scotland versus the rest. The effect of being on the wrong time zone becomes more stark the further north and west one goes, it's a simple fact of geography.
So Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England would be adversely affected as well. Even in southeast England, it would still mean darkness till 0900 in mid-winter.
This nonsense needs putting to bed once for all. It is Spain and France that are in the wrong time zone (thanks to Hitler), not the UK, and Spain is seriously considering reverting to GMT.
BTW, the rest of Europe is
not in just one time zone.