“In my experience, referendums in this country are not particularly happy events,” Boris Johnson told the BBC, referring to the deep divisions caused by the 2016 Brexit referendum won by defenders of the UK’s exit from the Union. European Union with 52% of the votes.
In 1975, the British had been asked whether they should keep their country in the then European Economic Community.
Forty-one years away seems “a good time,” said conservative Boris Johnson, for whom referenda should only be allowed “once a generation”.
The Scots voted in 2014, in a referendum, against the separation from the United Kingdom.
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Saturday that she hoped Scotland would achieve independence and join the European Union, stressing that Brexit was against the will of Scots expressed in a 2016 referendum.
“We are now experiencing a tough ‘Brexit’ against our will, at the worst possible moment, in the midst of a pandemic and economic recession,” lamented Nicola Sturgeon in an intervention on the official website of his pro-independence party, the SNP, days after the United Kingdom left the European single market and the customs union.
The prime minister reiterated her determination to hold a new referendum on Scottish independence, after which she lost in 2014, when 55% of Scots said “no” to separation from the UK.
The decision to call the referendum rests with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
However, a major SNP victory in the local elections next May would increase pressure on London to accept a new consultation.
According to the latest poll conducted for The Scotsman in mid-December, 58% of Scots now support a break with the UK, an unprecedented figure.
“As an independent member of the European Union, Scotland would be a partner and could build bridges – not just to build a stronger economy and a fairer society, but to facilitate relations between the EU and the UK,” argued Sturgeon .
While the British as a whole voted 51.9% in favor of ‘Brexit’ in 2016, 62% of Scots spoke out against leaving the EU.
“We didn’t want to leave and we hope to join you as soon as we are an equal partner,” concluded Sturgeon.
Brexit became effective at 23:00 on 31 December, almost a year after the United Kingdom officially left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, following the 2016 popular referendum .
A new Trade and Cooperation Agreement, concluded on December 24, entered into force at 23:00 (the same time in London and midnight in Brussels), to succeed the post-Brexit transition period, during which the Kingdom Kingdom maintained access to the single market and respect for European rules.
Breaking the last ties of a relationship of almost 50 years, the agreement guarantees the mutual access of products to the two markets without quotas or customs fees, but a series of commercial barriers exist, such as more customs controls and bureaucracy in economic transactions.
The United Kingdom is no longer subject to the European Court of Justice and starts to determine the national immigration policy, which will now treat Europeans like any foreign citizen. Britons lose freedom of movement in the EU and access to various community programs.
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