Scottish Independence
18 September 2014 marks the day when the Scottish population voted in an Independence Referendum to stay in the UK.
The opportunity of once in a generation to decide the fate of the Scottish nation led to the decision to remain as a part of the United Kingdom to be stronger and has let the UK be stronger with Scotland as a part of the Kingdom.
Seven years have passed and with the tremors of Brexit and Covid-19, the Scottish are now seeking a different approach toward their future in the UK.
Both the UK and Scotland believed that Scotland is better off as a part of the UK back in 2014.
Two years later, 62 percent of Scots voted to remain in the EU in 2016.
Today the polls and the SNP tell a dissimilar story compared to 2014.
SNP Set for Majority in 2021
The SNP lead the campaign for independence back in 2014 but the Scottish chose to stay, fast forward to here and now the SNP is more eager than ever. Back then 55.3 percent of the people of Scotland voted ‘NO’ to the referendum.
Ipsos MORI and STV News polls in early October 2020 shows that the SNP is set to be leading in the May 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, with Conservatives and Labour in second and third place respectively.
Of those who intend to use their first/constituency vote in the 2021 Parliament election, 55 percent chose the SNP and 47 percent intend to use their second vote in favour of the SNP as well.
The Scottish Conservatives come in second with 22 percent, the Scottish Labour in third with 16 percent, and the Green Party and Liberal Democrats with 7 and 6 percent in the fourth and fifth place.
The same poll found that the SNP is the most trusted party of Scotland with 59 percent of people finding it trustworthy in comparison to the Labour as the second most trusted with 40 percent.
The SNP gained the majority of Scots’ trust in critical issues such as education that Scotland has been struggling with for so long.
“Should Scotland Be an Independent Country?” Scots Say Yes
Ipsos MORI and STV News poll also indicates that in case of a referendum about Scotland’s constitutional future, 56 percent are likely to vote YES.
More than 50 percent of the people of Scotland are pessimistic about the impacts of Brexit. Which plays a key role in the increasing will of the Scots to gain independence from the UK.
For most of Scotland, the only way to get out of the quagmire of Brexit is to leave the UK altogether. As told before, the surge in the number of Scots willing to gain independence has a lot to do with the finalization of Brexit, but let’s not forget about the unpredictable and unwelcomed guest of the world, coronavirus.
The poor response of Johnson’s government and the impressive management of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has let the Scottish nation to believe they are better off on their own than as a part of the UK.
It all significantly depends on who wins the parliamentary elections in May. Nicola Sturgeon has already expressed that independence is ‘Scotland’s only route to rejoining the EU’ and she believes it has been so long that the UK government has led Scotland in the wrong direction.
What the Scots are now worried about is the repercussions of Brexit. The values of Scotland for which they have voted to remain in the EU are human dignity, freedom, democracy equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights all of which the Scots feel to have been threatened by Brexit.
“Over our nearly 50 years of membership, we have benefited enormously from the single market’s ‘four freedoms’ including freedom of movement,” said Sturgeon
According to Sturgeon Scotland did offer a compromise that meant the UK staying in the single market after leaving the EU. The offer was rejected by the UK government as the UK government intends to create more distance from the EU as possible for any reason they might have that Scots don’t believe in.
Scotland is now faced with the adversities of Brexit that it did in no way ask for. According to First Minister Sturgeon, what the SNP and in a broader sense Scotland is seeking is not to encourage separatism but to preserve the right of the Scottish people to choose a government that is able to live up to their needs.
Scotland Have Had Enough
Nicola Sturgeon believes the path that the UK has taken Scotland to is the path of wrong and it is “the introduction of legislation that had threatened to break international law and which still undermines the Scottish parliament,”
The First Minister of Scotland promises that Scotland as an independent member of the EU would be a great partner to the Union in building a stronger economy, a fairer society, and a bridge to understanding between the European Union and Scotland.
“That right [ of independence] has never been more important given the threat Brexit poses to the internationalist, welcoming European ethos held by so many people in Scotland,” Sturgeon said.
Despite what Prime minister Johnson has in mind, First Minister Sturgeon is keen on enforcing the legal action to guarantee a Scottish independence referendum. In case of an attempt to block the referendum on the part of the UK government Sturgeon has expressed that she might have to take the legal routes and oppose any blockage from the government of the UK.
“The point about whether the Westminster Government has to agree to that [a Scottish independence referendum], that’s never been tested in court. I hope it never has to be tested in court but I don’t rule anything like that out,” Sturgeon told BBC Radio Scotland.
Independent Scotland Goes Back to EU
The firm stance of the British government on the issue of Scottish independence does not reflect the will of the Scottish people in 2021. As Sturgeon says the aspirations of the people in Scotland can be met by contributing to the solidarity that the EU represents. Scotland want to go back to the EU and it is more serious about it than ever.
The fact that the vast majority of people of Scotland voted to remain within the EU, and the devastating poor performance of the UK government toward the threat of Covid-19 has stack more problems on top of Brexit had placed Scotland on the path of independence from the Kingdom and what seems to be the case is that this time it is a done deal opposing to 2014.