As readers know, while the UK as a whole voted to leave the European Union, Scotland and Northern Ireland overall voted Remain.

As we have discussed, Scotland presents two potential hurdles in the foreseeable future that we have discussed extensively. To recap, the first is how a 28 page government command paper on how to withdraw from the European Union will be interpreted, with the key issue being whether or not the Scottish Parliament's consent is required for the UK to invoke Article 50 and begin its formal withdrawal from the EU.

While Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has suggested that Parliament could try to block the UK's exit from the EU, Scottish Secretary and Conservative MP David Mundell has a different take on the matter, saying "We have to respect the result on Thursday, even if we don't like it - it was a UK wide vote - it was a vote by people across the UK," adding that "I personally don't believe the Scottish Parliament is in a position to block Brexit."

A second hurdle is the fact that immediately following the Brexit result, Sturgeon also said that a second Scottish independence vote is 'highly likely', adding that it was "democratically unacceptable" that Scotland faced the prospect of being taken out of the EU against its will. While Sturgeon also said that the Scottish government would begin preparing legislation to enable another vote (after just voting 55%-45% to remain in the UK in 2014), it doesn't appear as though the Scottish people agree with that plan.

As Reuters reports, a Survation poll showed 44.7% of people think Scotland should not conduct a second independence referendum, compared to 41.9% in favor of a new vote.

Interestingly, a poll of 1,002 people conducted for the Daily Record and Daily Mirror on June 25 also showed that despite not favoring holding another referendum, if one were to be held immediately Scots would vote 47% in favor of breaking away from the UK compared to 41.2% in favor of remaining.

We still believe that these tactics by politicians such as Sturgeon are just grasping at straws in order to save whatever piece of status quo is deemed salvageable, despite the will of the people to first remain in the UK, and then the UK as a whole to leave the European Union.