MPs back Union by taking seats

THE unity or separation of the United Kingdom is decided legally and peacefully at every general election. At all general elections, electors in every constituency decide first and foremost if they wish to be represented or not represented in the Union parliament.

This is done by electing candidates (MPs) who will or will not (abstentionist) take their seats in the House of Commons. In May 2010, across Scotland, 59 out of 59 MPs were sent by electors to take their seats in the Union parliament (including 6 SNP MPs). To go and sit in the Union parliament is to accept its valid and binding authority in law.

If electors do not wish to be part of the United Kingdom then they must give their vote to an abstentionist candidate, and if that candidate wins then the new MP can refuse to sit in the Union parliament in the knowledge that he represents the expressed electoral authority and political will of his constituents. Abstention is the price that a separatist must pay in order not to be part of the whole.

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MPs who have been elected to represent the constituency in the Union parliament do not have the authority to provide for the removal of the constituency from the Union parliament without submitting themselves as abstentionist candidates to the electorate to decide the matter at a by-election or general election.

Stewart Connell, via email