Nicola gets the elbow

[Horus]

Latest news is that Mr Tusk of the EU has said he does not want to meet with Nicola Sturgeon "as it is not the right time". That will take some of the bluster out of her sails as she was preparing to swan off to Europe and start talks with the EU. I would loved to have been a fly on the wall when she heard that.

[LovelyLadyLux]

So Nicola was heading as a Scottish Tourist to the EU and got banned for a while cause they didn't want to hear her rant?

WOW - talk about parallel universes!!!

[Hafiz]

Not quite the full picture. Also the visit is a fair bit more than just a meeting with one man.

“Nicola Sturgeon will now meet Jean-Claude Juncker during her visit to Brussels today to discuss Scotland keeping its EU status but she suffered another major blow after receiving short shrift from Germany.

The pair were not originally expected to meet thanks to Mr Juncker's full diary but talks have been scheduled for this evening.

She is also meeting Martin Shulz, president of the European Parliament but Donald Tusk, the president of the powerful European Council comprising the heads of member states, has refused an invitation for talks...

The Estonian Foreign Affairs Ministry did not wish to engage in "speculation" but its Slovakian counterpart opened the door to bilateral talks, saying its appreciated Scotland's pro-EU attitude...

Several central and eastern European states are reported to be concerned that meeting Ms Sturgeon would encourage other separatist movements.

They were said to be furious with Mr Shulz and his ally Mr Juncker for wooing the SNP to put pressure on David Cameron over a Brexit deal.
…
Ms Sturgeon is also expected to have discussions with other group leaders tomorrow including Guy Verhofstadt, the former Prime Minister of Belgium, who has said it is wrong Scotland is being taken out of the EU against its will. Scots voted by a margin of 62 per cent to 38 per cent to remain in the EU.

Details of the visit were disclosed after Alyn Smith, an SNP MEP, received a standing ovation in the European Parliament for begging his fellow parliamentarians not to “let Scotland down.” He also won applause in the chamber when he said he was “proudly Scottish and European.”…

She said her government had already met with the ambassadors of Slovakia, Germany and France and her early priority was to ensure “there is a widespread awareness across Europe of Scotland’s different choice in the referendum and of our aspiration to stay in the EU.”…

Earlier, Mr Smith told the European Parliament during an emergency debate on Brexit: "I want my country to be internationalist, cooperative, ecological, fair, European.…

After his short address he received a standing ovation from the vast majority of MEPs present, although Nigel Farage did not join in.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06 ... pean-parl/

The suggestion in the article that Schulz and Junker may be ‘wooing’ Sturgeon to put pressure on Cameron is likely to be only one of many negotiating tactics to be used in the future to gain advantage. Its a negotiation after all.

Scots meeting with national ambassadors seems a bit uppity for a provincial/regional government.

[Horus]

It will be interesting to see what the Spanish with their Catalonia problem and Belgium with it's Flemish dimension will make of this cosying up to the leader of an ethnic peoples wanting to potentially breakaway from the larger recognised entity.

[Hafiz]

Horus - The Spanish and the Belgians have been screaming - as you predicted. In this context that she met with the Belgian former PM is unexpected.

Its a fascinating chess game with everyone trying to play two or three moves ahead. Will that be good enough to win the game?

[Horus]

All the vibes that I am getting is that she may not get the same support a second time around if she goes for the independence vote again. I think that the oil price shock and how that may have had a detremental effect, plus the financial problems with the likes of the Royal Bank of Scotland may have got a few people thinking it was a bad idea. There are many scenarios for them remaining in the EU and one of those is that they may have to join the Euro, she often talks about retaining the £ but in reality that is wishful thinking. Granted she could still use the £ in the same way that most of the world uses the $, the big difference is that it would not be the UK £ supported by the Bank of England in the same way the American Federal Banks do not support all the other $ currencies of the world. The only way that Scotland could retain the £ Sterling is to agree to it being regulated by the Bank of England and as an independant country that would be a contradiction itself because the UK would be dictating Scotlands fiscal policy.

Borders are another issue, whereas with Northern Ireland to reinstate a border between the North and the South would almosrt certainly restart the old IRA issues of a divided Ireland and that will never happen. Through plenty of strife and two world wars that border has been open for 100 years, it is only some historically recent events that caused it to be patrolled in an attempt to contain terrorism. Ireland is of course an island and as such there is only air and ferry traffic to contend with and that can be policed at our own immigration points without the need to prevent free movement between the North and the South of Ireland.

Scotland however would be a different kettle of fish because it has a long land border with the rest of the UK. Should Scotland become an independant country within the EU it would have to permit free travel from other EU countries. That would mean establishing a Northern border of the UK with Scotland and could even mean implimenting a similar system for foreigners entering the UK from Scotland as applies in say America which requires foreign nationals from elsewhere who transit from a neighbouring country to do so using recognised methods such as airlines or rail. However it pans out it will certainly be a can of worms that I can see doing more harm to Scotland than it will to say England.