Academics and journalists came together to discuss ‘Public Attitudes to our Constitutional Future’ at the Festival of Politics.
The referendum on independence is still almost 13 months away and already most attention is focused on major substantive issues such as economic relations between an independent Scotland and the United Kingdom, and the ease or difficulty with which an independent Scotland would achieve membership of the European Union.
This was an elegant lesson in democratic politics. A few in the audience wanted to heckle and speak out of turn. The rest were having none of it, insisting through a collective murmur that they should follow the unspoken rules.
Scotland’s referendum on 18 September 2014 poses a fundamental question about the future of the UK and Scotland: whether a new Scottish state is created, or whether the UK continues to exist as now.
In little over a year from now, the Scottish electorate will be asked to determine whether Scotland should be an independent country. But what does it mean to be an independent country in an interdependent world?
We have now reached the half way mark in the referendum campaign. It is just over twelve months since the two ‘official’ referendum campaigns, Better Together and Yes Scotland, were launched. And it is just over twelve months to polling day on 18th September 2014.
Speculating on the future Scottish-EU relationship is tricky, not least as many issues are still to be resolved – be it the Scottish independence referendum or the UK’s potential EU in-out referendum.
