Polish People are Welcome in Scotland

Well - we will have to see. Let's measure in years and not weeks. The govt has promised lots in the election so it needs to generate high growth which will be very difficult.

@Miloslaw
What absolute nonsense. If we are subsided by the English, then why were they so keen to hold onto us at the last Indy referendum?

Also Scotland donates more to charity per head than the rest of the UK. So your racist stereotyping is wrong. You sound like a typical Daily Mail reader.

Brexit is the beginning of the end for the Union.....

@pawian
Yes if there's another Indy referendum, then Polish people who have settled in Scotland will be able to vote. Any Polish people I've spoken to would vote yes to Independence. The problem is the vast majority of the media, such as the BBC, newspapers, etc which is London centric are totally biased towards the union and don't present a balanced view. It propogates scare mongering and negative scenarios.

Shouldn't really vote one way or the other.

Well you needn't worry about the BBC any more - that would be one of the things Scotland would have to do without.

There are Scottish newspapers already and they have wider readership there than the London papers.

Thanks, at last sb answered my question. But can you say exactly if they will be able to take part as settled migrants after 5 years` stay or they need to be regular citizens coz I am curious about the legal regulations here.


I was against it coz it broke the unity of Europe confronted with the Russian pressure. But now, when the deal is done, I have nothing against your independence after Brexit. Good luck! The English will have to suffer the consequences - only Wales will remain as the last element of their Empire! :)) The first and the last.

They were eligible to take part in the last one. All EU citizens living in Scotland were eligible and the present proposed franchise is that the voting rights would be the same in any future referendum. So yes, any Pole living in Scotland will be able to vote.

Just like that? Even fresh immigrants? Is it Scottish or European law? Could Scots come to Poland and similarly take part in Polish referendums?

It's not European law. I know that because in Ireland, which is an EU country, only Irish citizens may vote in referendums. That's because the result of a referendum requires a change in the constitution and only the citizens of Ireland have the power to change our constitution.

I don't believe it's Scottish law either as the referendum is not called by Scotland but by Westminster ie the British government decides that there will be a referendum, therefore Westminster decides the voting eligibility. As there is virtually no history of referendums in the UK (as opposed to Ireland where we've had about thirty, if memory serves me correctly) I think the voting rights are decided on a case by case basis.

As to Poland, you don't have many referendums either and your government doesn't need to consult citizens to change the constitution so the issue of foreigners voting in Polish referendums is not likely to arise.

The PRL government didn't either.

I worked with Polish folk and they are very decent, hard working people.

They are and, in my experience, despite my Polish ancestry, the Slowaks are even better.