During the Indyref, I would often privately marvel at the sheer ignorance of English MPs when it comes to Scottish affairs. I recently saw a tweet suggesting that one Labour MP cared about kids in Glasgow as much as kids in England without appearing to understand that education in Scotland is a devolved matter for Holyrood.
Clive Lewis seems to have a similar confusion here, which has also appeared in some of Rebecca Long-Bailey's comments. Firstly the power to grant an independence referendum is reserved to Westminster. Secondly, the people of Scotland announced in 2014 that they did not want independence. Thirdly, even if the UK were still to be a member of the EU by the time of a new indyref, creating an independent Scotland involves creating a new country that would have to apply for its own membership. Fourthly, trying to disentangle a union that has lasted more than three hundred years means more wrangling over the Constitution than even Brexit does. Fifthly, cutting Scotland off from the UK in the current states of its budget would mean a massive shortfall between current spend and the tax take.
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