Scottish parliament to defy UK, back independence vote

Bloomberg

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to win backing for her plan to pursue a second independence referendum in a parliamentary vote that comes a day before the UK triggers two years of talks on withdrawing from the European Union.
Lawmakers in Edinburgh will vote around 5 p.m. local tine on Tuesday, with the Greens already saying they will support Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party to ensure a majority in the semi-autonomous Scottish Parliament. Sturgeon is seeking permission to request the legal means from the U.K. authorities to hold the plebiscite by spring 2019, saying circumstances have changed now Britain is pulling out of the EU.
The vote, which was postponed from last week because of the terrorist attack outside the U.K. Parliament in London, sets up what could be a lengthy and acrimonious domestic showdown in the midst of the Brexit negotiations. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May met Sturgeon on a visit to Scotland on Monday and has repeatedly rebuffed the plan for another Scottish referendum.
“When that change is imposed on us, we should have the right to choose,” Sturgeon told Scottish lawmakers at the start of Tuesday’s debate. “None of us should be in any doubt what’s at stake. The people of Scotland must also have their say.”
The dispute over who has the right to decide Scotland’s future and when is thus set to rumble on, and that might suit both parties for now. Sturgeon is trying to build support in the polls for independence after being defeated in 2014, a year when the Scottish economy was performing better and the price of North Sea oil was almost twice what it is today.
The Conservative Party, which governs the U.K. though is the largest opposition group in the Scottish Parliament, says no referendum should take place, not least because there’s no public or political consent for one.