Sturgeon will announce her plan on Tuesday for another referendum on Scottish independence in October 2023. In September 2014, 55 per cent of voters voted against independence in a referendum. But because of Brexit, a number of Scots now regret it. In Scotland, 62 percent of voters voted for EU membership in 2016. In 2014, a referendum was held in Scotland because the government in London granted special powers to do so. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government does not appear ready to do so at this time.
Nicola Sturgeon will tell the Scottish Parliament at about 3pm (our time) how she plans to organize her referendum. She believes her majority in the Scottish Parliament gives her the ability to do so. The British government disputes this.
Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has wanted a referendum for years, but it would be difficult to hold a referendum whose results would be widely recognized if opponents of secession in London and Scotland challenged its legitimacy. Sturgeon might call it an advisory referendum to lubricate opponents.
Scotland’s independence doesn’t need much importance to the king of the kingdom. The kingdoms of England and Scotland had one king together in 1603, but they remained separate nations for more than a hundred years. In 1707 they became a kingdom through Acts of Confederation.