SCOTLAND: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon Calls For Second Independence Referendum Over “Hard Brexit”

The Guardian reports:

Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish people will be given a choice whether to follow the UK into a “hard Brexit” or become an independent country between autumn 2018 and spring 2019. The Scottish first minister said she was firing the starting gun on a second independence referendum because the British government had failed to move “even an inch” towards compromise over EU negotiations.

A spokesman for Theresa May responded by saying a second referendum would be “divisive and cause huge economic uncertainty at the worst possible time”. Setting out plans to seek the authority of the Scottish parliament, Sturgeon said: “Since last June my focus has been on trying to find an agreement with the UK that would reconcile the UK-wide vote to leave the European Union with the Scottish vote to remain.”