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#ScottishIndependence vote may be decided 'within weeks': Sturgeon ally

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SturgeonA decision on calling a new Scottish independence referendum could be made within weeks, said a Scottish Greens lawmaker whose party is a key ally of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The timing of a potential new Scottish referendum - which polls say most Scots do not want - would be determined by the process of Britain's exit from the European Union, said Ross Greer, a lawmaker and a key campaigner in the 2014 vote in which Scots rejected independence by a 10-percentage-point margin.

"We are working on a timescale now where Article 50 (which triggers Britain leaving the European Union) will be activated next month – that's the timescale when it will almost certainly become clear whether there's going to be a referendum or not. So that's the timescale we should be working on to get our campaign up and running," Greer told The Herald on Sunday.

Scotland - one of the United Kingdom's four nations along with England, Wales and Northern Ireland - voted to keep its EU membership last June, but will leave the EU because the UK as a whole voted to do so. This means Scotland must have a fresh choice on its future, Sturgeon's nationalists argue, if its wishes are not respected as part of the Brexit negotiations.

They have proposed a special deal for Scotland within Brexit which they say the British government has yet to consider.

Greer said he expected a successor to the "Yes Scotland" campaign from 2014 to begin to take shape in the coming weeks.

"We will know in the next few weeks how to (take) that a step further and in the next few weeks I expect moves will be made to form what could be that organization," he was quoted as saying.

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The Scottish Greens' six seats in the Scottish parliament would complete the 65 seats for a majority that Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP), with 63, would need to pass legislation on a referendum.

Technically the British parliament, which is sovereign, could block another referendum on independence. But to do so would likely provoke a constitutional crisis if opinion polls were to show most Scots favor a ballot.

While Sturgeon's party has independence as a long-term goal, she will also avoid calling a referendum unless there is clear evidence she would win. So far, despite unhappiness about Brexit in Scotland, opinion polls show that support for independence is still at around 45% as it was in 2014.

Greer said the calling of such a vote would have to be a joint decision for the SNP and Greens.

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