mrjonno wrote:The BBC will be accused of being biased both sides , ie it will be reasonable neutral

mrjonno wrote:Does anyone read the Daily Mail north of the border?

Lord Kerr told BuzzFeed News that if Scotland became independent after Brexit, its entry back into the EU would be "very fast".

"The Scots have to leave the EU with the UK – if the UK leaves – then go independent," said Kerr. "Once they’ve been recognised all round as independent they can then knock on the front door marked 'accession'.

"That’s the bad news, but the good news is that it would be a very swift accession negotiation. The sort of rubbish people talk about – back of the queue, behind the Turks – that’s all balls because there is no queue.

"People who are declared eligible to join can join as soon as they’re ready to accept the whole of the acquis. Since the Scots would, presumably ... still be applying something very close to the existing acquis, they'd be in very fast."

Tracer Tong wrote:It only takes one veto, you know, as the good lord knows.

ronmcd wrote:

Tracer Tong wrote:It only takes one veto, you know, as the good lord knows.

It beggars belief that an independent Scotland would be refused entry.

It also beggars belief when people claim it.

Tracer Tong wrote:

ronmcd wrote:

Tracer Tong wrote:It only takes one veto, you know, as the good lord knows.

It beggars belief that an independent Scotland would be refused entry.

It also beggars belief when people claim it.

You mean, you disagree with me. You're not quite sure with what you disagree, of course, but I must be wrong somehow.

ronmcd wrote:

Tracer Tong wrote:

ronmcd wrote:

Tracer Tong wrote:It only takes one veto, you know, as the good lord knows.

It beggars belief that an independent Scotland would be refused entry.

It also beggars belief when people claim it.

You mean, you disagree with me. You're not quite sure with what you disagree, of course, but I must be wrong somehow.

So you honestly think an independent Scotland would be refused entry?

Toying with a veto

Could Spain veto an independent Scotland from joining the EU? González Pons said Madrid won’t do that but other sources said the decision hasn’t been taken yet, suggesting that the Spanish position will depend on the Catalan situation when, and if, an independent Scotland applies to join the EU.

fisherman wrote:

Toying with a veto

Could Spain veto an independent Scotland from joining the EU? González Pons said Madrid won’t do that but other sources said the decision hasn’t been taken yet, suggesting that the Spanish position will depend on the Catalan situation when, and if, an independent Scotland applies to join the EU.

Spanish threats, all to suppress domestic democracy. A lot of member states are just as screwed up, or even worse than the UK.

Tracer Tong wrote:

Some food for thought, by the way: in 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. What is the only Western European country that has, to this day, not recognised that independence?

The country’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, said Spain hoped the UK would remain together but added that a sovereign Scotland would have to “join the queue” to get back into the EU.

Ignacio Molina, a senior analyst as the Elcano Royal Institute and professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, says Spain is extraordinarily unlikely to use its veto, not least because the Scottish push for independence is profoundly different from the Catalan one.

“No one’s talked about a veto and I don’t think there will be one,” he says. “Over the past 20 years, Spain has recognised many states – Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Estonia and Lithuania – which all won independence legitimately. The last country Spain recognised was South Sudan.

“Spain isn’t anti-independence even if, for obvious reasons, it doesn’t like countries becoming independent. There’s no reason why Spain wouldn’t recognise a legally independent Scotland. It would make no sense and be absurd.”

But he nonetheless discerns a coded warning in Dastis’s comments about Scotland needing to join the queue. As the foreign minister – a veteran diplomat whose last job was as Spain’s permanent representative to the EU – should well know, the notion of a membership queue is a myth.

“There is no queue. It doesn’t exist. [Scotland] won’t be behind Turkey. That’s the only contentious thing the Spanish government has said. I think the idea was to introduce a note of complication: to tell Scotland that it won’t all be so simple and easy.”