The Scottish National Party (SNP), Scotland’s ruling party, announced on Thursday that it wants to hold a referendum on Scotland’s independence by 2023. If the majority of people vote to ‘leave’, it will trigger an explosion after 314 years of unity between England and Scotland.
Fighting epidemic and Brexit, the UK may soon face another crisis: Scotland’s independence, a century after Ireland.
In 2014, Scots voted against independence with 55 percent and 45 percent, respectively. Since then, however, Brexit has wreaked havoc on British politics and the economy. So the SNP nationalists have repeatedly called for a new referendum. If the party lives up to expectations in the May 6 parliamentary elections, a second referendum could turn out to be a reality, despite the firm opposition of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“Should Scotland be an independent country?”
“Once the Govt crisis is over, we believe the people of Scotland should be given a chance to decide in a referendum whether Scotland should be an independent country,” the SNP said in a statement on Thursday.
“The SNP wants a referendum in the first half of the five-year period,” the Nationalist Party added, adding that the exact date would be “determined by our democratically elected parliament.”
If it does, the ballot will show the following question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
The SNP insists that “there can be no moral or democratic justification for Boris Johnson or the Westminster government to withhold the right of the Scottish people to decide their future.”
1707
The Scottish National Party currently holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament. In a similar post-election galaxy, a coalition with five Green MPs will give the party a majority.
Did the last hour strike the union between England and Scotland, which had allowed the creation of the ‘Kingdom of Great Britain’ since 1707? We will find out more on May 6th.
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