United Kingdom: A new push for Scottish independence
The Scottish people have spoken, and they want another vote on independence, said Kirsty Strickland in The Scotsman. In last week’s regional elections, the ruling Scottish National Party won a clear victory, coming just one seat short of an absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had campaigned on a promise to call a second independence referendum, recognizing that the world has radically changed since 2014, when 55 percent of Scots voted that their nation should remain part of the U.K. Since then, the U.K. has left the European Union—a break most Scots opposed—and the mismanaged response to the pandemic has exposed the perils of being governed from London. Scots have now “signed, sealed, and delivered a democratic mandate to the next Scottish government to pursue a referendum on independence.” But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected the idea of a new vote, and the law says he must give his consent. Sturgeon won’t hold a “wildcat” referendum without London’s OK, because she wants a binding vote that’s legal and legitimate. The two leaders must engage in good-faith talks; for Johnson to block the SNP from honoring its “manifesto commitments would be an act of vandalism on our democratic processes.”
There’s little unity in the modern United Kingdom, said Ian Birrell in INews.co.uk. Each part of the country is governed by a different party: Johnson’s increasingly nationalist Conservatives control England, the SNP holds Scotland, the center-left “Labour clings on in Wales,” while the Democratic Unionist Party is in charge in
Northern Ireland. Scotland’s insistence on a referendum may well end up at the Supreme Court, which is likely to deny any such vote given the Scottish parliament’s “limited powers.” But a judicial ban would only further inflame the nationalists. And Johnson has no plausible arguments for his opposition. “His stand against independence rings hollow when he made similar claims against Brussels” as a leader of the proBrexit campaign. Back then, he was all for local control. Johnson should educate Scots about the true cost of independence, said William Hague in The Times. Scotland pays about $400 less tax per head than the rest of us, while government expenditures there are more than $2,200 higher. So, “does the SNP see higher taxes or spending cuts as the answer,” and will it level with the people? And if Scotland joins the EU, will it have a hard border with England?
Most Scots “don’t want to be forced to make the choice between being Scottish and British,” said former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown in The Guardian. They love the National Health Service, “a living symbol of unity,” but resent Johnson’s embrace of English nationalism and his badging of “Scottish bridges and roads as gifts that come courtesy of the U.K.” Scots would welcome “better cooperation” with London—but as equals. No independence vote will be held immediately, said Ian Swanson in The Scotsman. The election result “confirms a nation split down the middle,” and Sturgeon knows she could well lose a referendum. But the fire has been lit, and now “the arguments will rage.”