[ti:Johnson Refuses Call for Scottish Independence Vote] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]The British government has refused a call by Scotland's First Minister [00:07.52]for a special election on Scottish independence. [00:13.52]The refusal came as a note written on the government's legislative agenda. [00:19.96]It said that a new vote would be "damaging." [00:25.60]British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament Thursday that the Scottish government [00:32.68]should not be concerned with "breaking up our United Kingdom." [00:40.04]The disagreement came as Queen Elizabeth II arrived at the Parliament in London [00:46.32]to set out the policies of Johnson's new government. [00:52.84]Earlier in the day, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon demanded the British government [00:59.96]give Scotland the power to hold a new vote for independence. [01:06.76]In general elections last week, Sturgeon's Scottish National Party [01:12.88]won 80 percent of the seats representing Scotland. [01:18.64]She says that majority gives her the right to make the demand. [01:26.04]Speaking in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said the message from the election was that Scotland [01:32.92]"does not want a Tory government led by Boris Johnson, taking us out of the European Union (EU)." [01:44.32]Johnson has said the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 settled the question. [01:52.64]More than half of those voting wanted to stay part of Britain. [02:00.44]The British will remove Scotland from the EU "against its will," Sturgeon said. [02:09.00]Scotland had the country's highest percentage of voters opposed [02:13.80]to a British withdrawal from the EU, a move politicians are calling Brexit. [02:20.40]Sixty-two percent of the voters want to remain part of the EU. [02:27.56]The Scottish parliament is devolved and needs British permission to hold a new independence referendum. [02:36.56]However, Sturgeon said there are still paths to independence. [02:42.88]The Scottish parliament was established under British legislation known as the Scotland Act 1998. [02:52.76]It says "the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England" is an issue to be decided by Britain's parliament. [03:03.12]This is understood to mean that any referendum on Scottish independence [03:08.76]can only be approved with the permission of lawmakers in London. [03:15.36]However, the issue has never been tested in court. [03:19.44]Some lawyers and experts have argued that the Scottish parliament could have the power to call a referendum. [03:29.84]Scotland's Constitutional Secretary Mike Russell [03:33.76]did not rule out such a legal effort, saying "everything is on the table." [03:40.88]But he added that such a move was "not an argument for this week." [03:47.88]Sturgeon has said she would only seek to separate from the United Kingdom through legal referendum. [03:56.08]She is, however, under pressure from some nationalists to call for a vote without the British parliament's permission. [04:05.64]An unapproved referendum in Scotland could cause a lot of problems, as recent history suggests. [04:16.04]Two years ago, the Spanish state of Catalonia held an independence referendum that led to anger in the country. [04:24.92]Spain's government considered the vote illegal. [04:29.16]Sturgeon's former adviser, Kevin Pringle, recently wrote that Scotland might hold an illegal referendum. [04:39.08]"The legality...of such a move has never been tested," he noted in a report in The Sunday Times newspaper. [04:48.52]However, an illegal vote might hurt Scotland's chances of joining the EU, which most Scots support. [04:58.92]Spain might veto admission by Scotland if its uses an illegal independence process [05:07.00]-- fearful that Catalonia might do the same. [05:11.68]I'm Susan Shand. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM