WITH a further six-month extension to Brexit and the can being kicked even further down the road, it was intriguing to note that the result of a nationwide referendum in Switzerland had been overturned.
The poll, held in February 2016, asked the country’s voters whether married couples and co-habiting partners should pay the same tax. Voters narrowly rejected the proposal, with 50.8% against and 49.2% in favour.
But the supreme court has now voided the result on the grounds that voters were not given full information, and the vote must be re-run.
The information provided to the electorate was judged “incomplete” and therefore “violated the freedom of the vote”, the court ruled.
During the referendum campaign, the Swiss government told voters that just 80,000 of married couples were paying more tax than couples living together. The true figure was almost half a million, the government later said.
The court’s statement noted that “keeping in mind the close result and the severe nature of the irregularities, it is possible that the outcome of the ballot could have been different.”
How refreshing this is as we look to the current situation in the UK, where voters were likewise not given the full information. The negative economic impacts of Brexit are becoming clearer and Brexiteer claims of £350 million a week to the NHS and that a deal with the EU would be “the easiest trade deal in human history” have quickly melted away.
Reality has struck, public reaction has changed and there is clear support not only for a People’s Vote but for staying in the EU. As with Switzerland, now that the circumstances have changed, we deserve the right to have our say.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
I’D like to reiterate the point made by Bryan Stuart and Kevin McKenna: “Brexit can give [I would say has” given”] Scotland the gift of indy.”
I’d also like to repeat Nicola’s tweet, as published by the Jouker in Wednesday’s National. She said: “Tonight, 12 of the 27 EU member states that will decide the UK’s future have populations smaller than or similar in size to Scotland’s. If we become independent [I’d say “when”] we get to sit at that table – enjoying the same solidarity shown to Ireland – instead of being sidelined [I would say” ignored”] by Westminster.”
Now I’ve got to admit, like so many SNP and Green supporters, that self-determination is down to us. I keep forgetting that fair-minded Tory voters and traditional caring Labour voters must surely be disillusioned with what’s going on or not going on in Westminster. Surely they see the writing on the wall. Surely they recognise they’ve been let down. And maybe (not so surely) some of them will vote Yes in indyref2! Here’s hoping!
Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus
AFTER reading the piece on M15 and their surveillance of SNP and other pro-independence supporters (April 10), I would say that this isn’t a historical event – far from it. I can assure you that the apparatus of the British state (that is the mechanisms and agencies that ensures the continuation of “British” interests) is very much ongoing. To think otherwise would be dangerous in the extreme!
When individuals think of the British security services, they think of MI6 or MI5, but there are certainly more MI departments which are tasked with targets or subjects specific to them.
There are also clandestine agencies that have been in operation for many more centuries. These can be traced back to Elizabeth I of England and her spy master, a certain Sir Francis Walsingham, whose main job was to ensure the Anglican model of Catholic Church of England endured, against the Catholic Church of Rome, and the royal prerogatives to head this Church.
It should be remembered that Elizabeth II of England is the head of the Reformed Catholic Church, she is not the head of the Protestant church. They need no princes or bishops to reach God.
If you consider that the “security services” have in the past infiltrated animal rights groups, it’s only plausible if not indeed logical to expect that they have also infiltrated independence political parties. To what level? That’s anyone’s guess. I think stopping the dissembling of the “British state” would be as good a reason enough? One should remember that the British tried, to the last, to the keep Ireland tied to the empire, in direct opposition to the fact that that majority of its natives sought total independence from its colonial oppressor!
Then again I may be a conspiracy theorist, and British political decency would never allow such underhand antics! Aye right!
Sandy Allan
Ellon
I AM so excited and I hope you will be too. Before us lies the opportunity to inflict a terminal blow to the aspirations of Ukip and Brexit parties in the imminent European Parliament elections.
We have a huge army of support we can mobilise for all candidates who have demonstrated their pro-EU position over the past few years. With the likes of Alyn Smith, Joanna Cherry, Maggie Chapman, Iain Murray as well as independents thrown up in the People’s Vote campaign, how can we fail? Let’s work together, cross-party where necessary, to make sure we kick Ukip and the Brexit Party out of Scotland and Brussels forever.
To win that support I offer the slogan Remain and Reform in the EU and Repair Broken Britain. “Bring it on,” Nicola said, and I am with her on that. This is a unique opportunity to show where the WILL OF THE PEOPLE is now in 2019. Lets not squander it
Tony Martin
Gullane
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