Scotland will make another attempt to gain its independence. Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, declared on Tuesday that her country will vote on whether or not to secede from the United Kingdom. She suggested holding the election on October 19, 2023.
If the vote is to really occur and be significant, there will need to be some legal wrangling between now and then. The vote needs the approval of the Boris Johnson-led British government, but Andrew McDonald for Politico says that “no such consent from Westminster will be forthcoming.”
Sturgeon nonetheless intends to move forward, claiming that British control over Scotland “cannot be founded on anything other than a consensual, willing collaboration.”
Scotland has been a member of Great Britain since 1707, therefore independence would end a very old alliance. Why end things now? Here is all the information you need:
Wait. The Scots had already rejected independence, right?
Yes. When Scots were urged to vote on leaving the UK in 2014, the plan was defeated by a margin of 55 to 45 percent. According to NPR’s Willem Marx, that was reportedly a “once in a lifetime” opportunity for independence, but the SNP has spent the years since then gathering “support for a rerun.”
In a series of policy papers earlier this month, Sturgeon argued that an independent Scotland would be “wealthier, happier, and fairer.” Withdrawing from the United Kingdom, “the people who live here” instead of politicians in London, who “pursue policies, like Brexit, that are gravely harmful to Scotland’s interests,” would have “crucial decision-making authority.” In her conclusion, she asserts that “if the status quo is not working, we should question how to repair it” and notes that “other nations in northwest Europe, regardless of size, routinely out-perform the U.K. across a variety of critical criteria that determine well-being.” Her response is independence, of course.
Why may this chance be different from 2014?
Brexit. Voters in the United Kingdom voted to exit the European Union two years after Scots chose to remain in the country. Scotland, on the other hand, chose to stay. Why? Because although the UK “devolved” some of its powers back to constituent countries, the EU had spent recent decades subsidizing improvements in Scotland as part of an attempt to assist the union’s poorest areas catch up with the richer countries.
In 2019, Elliot Ross reported for The Atlantic that “the twin elements of the EU’s growing presence in Scotland and the devolution of powers to Edinburgh have helped reinforce Scottish nationalism.” The claim that Brexit would force Scotland out of Europe against our will is currently the most popular term in Scottish politics.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed. Sturgeon gave frequent news conferences that were well-liked by the people, much like former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did in the United States, and support for independence started to build. Johnson’s own self-inflicted issues resulting from the epidemic, the “Partygate” affair, have also provided Sturgeon with a route to the referendum: More than half of those surveyed in a January poll by The Scotsman believed the issue had weakened the argument for the Union’s continued membership.
However, surveys also imply that the most recent independent endeavor could be risky: Voters who wish to stay in the UK have a slim majority (51%) according to an Ipsos survey from May.
The first thing Sturgeon will do is try to work around Johnson’s administration. According to David Mac Dougal for Euro News, she has “asked Scotland’s leading legal official, the Lord Advocate, to go to the U.K. Supreme Court to acquire a ruling on whether the Scottish Parliament alone has the ability to organize a lawful consultative referendum.”
If that doesn’t work, Sturgeon has plans to present the subject to UK voters directly, and “her party will fight the next U.K. general election on the only matter of independence,” according to the statement. Even if the vote is a victory, independence still isn’t certain. According to John-Paul Ford Rojas of Sky News, “legislation would have to be enacted by both the U.K. and Scottish parliaments to give effect to the ruling.”
A significant proportion of Scots still choose to stay in the UK, nevertheless. According to Rodney Jefferson’s article for Bloomberg, “Johnson’s Conservatives, the main opposition party in the Scottish Parliament, have warned they would boycott any referendum that was called unilaterally.” They’ll argue that rather than putting time and effort towards being independent, “Sturgeon should be concentrating on enhancing the health care and education.”
In either case, it will undoubtedly generate a lot of heated discussion for at least a year. Sturgeon conceded on Tuesday that the outcomes may be historic. “The future of our country should be discussed and decided upon at this pivotal period in history.”