Theresa May forgot to tell Scotland that Brexit is starting next week [TWEETS]
Theresa May has announced that the government will trigger Article 50 on Wednesday 29 March. But in her presumable excitement, the PM forgot to tell Scotland to put the date in its diary app. As Scottish MPs, MSPs, and even Nicola Sturgeon only found out via BBC News.
It must have slipped my mind!
SNP MPs and MSPs took to Twitter to express their outrage at May forgetting to inform their government. Many were unhappy with May. Some reacted sarcastically. But others were wry:
Thank you @BBCNews for letting JMC members like me know that #Article50 is to be triggered next week. @GOVUK somehow forgot to inform us.
— Michael Russell (@Feorlean) March 20, 2017
Read on...
Outrageous but typical of UK government arrogance and complete dismissal of Scottish interests. #indyref2 https://t.co/UOsMsa2m1g
— Roger Mullin (@RogMull) March 20, 2017
Oooohhhhh that's the respect agenda. https://t.co/tVkdoMg5Rc
— Christina McKelvie (@ChristinaSNP) March 20, 2017
As this is a partnership of equals can we wait till after we've won #ScotRef then ask @BBCNews to tell UK gov when it was held?
— Peter Grant MP (@PeterGrantMP) March 20, 2017
How careless of me!
But some people didn’t believe the PM was being ‘forgetful’. More that Scotland was low down on the Tories’ pecking order of importance. And therefore somehow ‘subservient’ to Westminster:
"By the way, we're docking nuclear submarines in your country"
"By the way, we're invading Iraq"
"By the way, we're triggering Article 50"
— Angry Scotland Podcast 🎙 (@AngryScotland) March 20, 2017
And in a bizarre twist, May said that she had directly told the Welsh government during a trip to Swansea on Monday morning:
I have had an opportunity to talk to Carwyn [Jones, Welsh First Minister] today about the process we will be going through in terms of the triggering of Article 50…
I must remember to write these things down!
The PM and Scotland’s First Minister Sturgeon are in an ongoing dispute over a second independence referendum. Sturgeon said the Scottish government will be calling for one in either 2018 or 2019. But May said that “now is not the time” for it.
It’s hard to believe that May would accidentally forget to tell the Scottish government she had set a date for triggering Article 50. So it would seem that the PM is now operating an infantile game of tit-for-tat with the SNP. Which probably sums up the Tories’ attitude to Scotland. But as with anything she does, the PM will probably end up just pushing more Scottish voters towards saying “Aye!” in another independence referendum. Whoops.
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