Scottish Independence

Scotland has a problem. Its ambitions are taking a backseat while political shifts happen elsewhere. The UK is largely left untouched by Scottish politics. The situation is different elsewhere. If a political choice is set to the Scottish people it usually trends in Scotland only. The rest of the union is assumed to be disinterested.

It’s a roadblock to making a case for a truly independent Scotland. This is because a separation needs to happen between parts and not in isolation. A fight for sovereignty is a different matter. These don’t happen in isolation either but it’s a different set of circumstances. There are differences to the outcomes of either.

As it happens Scotland has been a devolved region since a referendum in 1997 in which just shy of 75% consented to it. The total number in favour came to over 1.7 million, against just over 600,000 who said no to it. In 2014 a similar but far more wide-ranging referendum was held begging the question of actual independence, but over 2 million voted against such a proposal compared to over 1.6 million in favour.

The difficulties in going forward are evident. The strength of feeling against further separate of state and powers is evident by the last result in 2014. The feelings against such a move surged from below 1 million people to just over 2 million people. In contrast, feelings in favour reduced by over a hundred thousand votes. It isn’t a significant drop in support, but the gap is reversed and it’s those in support who are on the back foot now.