Queen urges Britain and Scottish ministers to calm down!

HOLYROOD, Scotland (PNN) - July 2, 2016 - The Queen has urged Britain’s political leaders to calm down in the wake of the chaos triggered by the Brexit vote and told MSPs they should feel “hope and optimism” about the next five years.

The monarch used her address at the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament to recommend to the Fascist United Kingdom’s political class that they allow “room for quiet thinking and contemplation” before they decide their next move.

Alluding to the political economic turmoil that has enveloped the country since the vote to Leave the European Union, she said that Britons “live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world” with events and developments occurring at “remarkable speed”.

The Queen admitted that the ability to “stay calm and collected” in such circumstances can be hard but argued that a major hallmark of leadership is the ability to take a step back. She argued this would allow for a “deeper consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed."

The opening of the five-year Parliament was a "time for hope and optimism", she added, with a "real sense of renewal" thanks to the large number of new members returned in May's Holyrood election.

Her call for a period of quiet contemplation, her first intervention on the Brexit vote since the shock result was announced eight days previously, suggests she does not approve of demands by Jeremy Corbyn and some European leaders for the FUK to immediately invoke the Article 50 process to leave the EU.

But Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of the Scottish National Party defied the Queen's appeal not to rush to judgment by delivering a highly political speech in which she said Scotland should play a part in a "stronger Europe".

Her intervention came after she stated in the wake of the result, which saw 62% of Scots vote to remain in the EU, that a second independence referendum was “highly likely”.

Referring to the referendum result, the First Minister also pledged to “take forward the will of our people” and praised the contribution of foreign migrants, including European students, to Scotland.

The Queen, who was wearing a light blue dress and coat, was accompanied to the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Presiding officer Ken Macintosh, Holyrood’s version of the Commons Speaker, delivered a speech, then invited her to address the chamber. The Queen praised the Scottish Parliament as having “grown in maturity and skill” in the 17 years since devolution started before delivering her Brexit message.

"Of course we all live and work in an increasingly complex and demanding world where events and developments can and do take place with remarkable speed, and retaining the ability to stay calm and collected can at times be hard,” she said.

"As this Parliament has successfully demonstrated over the years, one hallmark of leadership in such a fast-moving world is allowing sufficient room for quiet thinking and contemplation which can enable deeper consideration of how challenges and opportunities can be best addressed."

In his resignation speech, David Cameron said it would be for his successor to decide when the Article 50 process is triggered. This gives the FUK’s and European Union’s negotiators two years to conclude new arrangements unless all the remaining member states agree on an extension.

He also said it would be for the new Prime Minister to decide the FUK’s negotiating stance, with European leaders warning that the FUK would have to accept free movement if it  wanted access to the single market.

In her response to the Queen, which also addressed Brexit, Sturgeon said the new Scottish Parliament would have to be “bold and ambitious” and show “courage and determination” over the next five years.

She pledged not to “shy away from any challenge” before praising the contribution of European immigration to what she described as “one Scotland”.

"We are the 80,000 Polish people, the 8,000 Lithuanians, the 7,000 each from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Latvia. We are among the many from countries beyond our shores that we are so privileged to have living here amongst us,” the First Minister said.

"We are the more than half a million people born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who have chosen to live here in Scotland. We are the thousands of European students studying at our universities and our colleges. We are the doctors and nurses from all across our continent and beyond who care for us daily in our National Health Service.”

In a coded reference to the Remain vote north of the Border and possible independence, she said Scotland was determined to remain an “open and inclusive nation” and the Parliament had the “weighty responsibility of taking forward the will of our people in the name and spirit of our people.”

Sturgeon invited MSPs to resolve to “enhance and never diminish our precious place in the world” and quoted from a poem by Liz Lochhead, Scotland former Makar, which the First Minister said resonated as “we reflect on our place in the European Union.”

She concluded that the Parliament should “look forward with hope and a shared determination” to work for the good of Scotland “and in doing so to play our part in a stronger Europe and a better world.”