Uh-oh. This feels like the calm before the storm, especially if Scotland is serious about ditching the United Kingdom and the royal family in the process. There will be a referendum later this year in Scotland to decide whether the country’s future involves staying in the U.K. or separating from it.
Obviously, this is a huge decision and doesn’t just impact the royal family, but that’ll be a big part of it. Although it was initially assumed that Scotland would remain a monarchy even with its independence, Kenny MacAskill, a senior Scottish Minister has now spoken up and suggested the idea of a second referendum – and this one will decide whether Queen Elizabeth will remain head of state even if Scotland gains their independence.
The Sunday Post reportedly stated that the Minister’s comments included, “We will inherit the situation we have with the Queen as head of state in the ceremonial capacity that she has. But it will be for the people of Scotland to decide. If and when that would occur, if they wished to have a referendum, and we would hope we would become the government post-2016, it will be for whoever is in office then.”
So basically, it’s not going to happen for some time, even if it happens at all. However, if the people of the country do decide to vote out the Queen as head of state, that will have a lot of implications for the governments and the monarchy. Scotland is a relatively large part of the United Kingdom right now, and losing the country would be a massive blow to the UK, not to mention the royal family. And considering that most people assume the Queen’s job is worthless, this will only add to those concerns.
Anyway, it doesn’t look like anyone will have to worry about it until 2016 at least, but perhaps Prince Charles should start getting ready to deal with it.
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