Jason MoorePalma16/12/2019 10:48
TW
1

Boris Johnson faces his very own Battle of Britain with Scottish nationalists turning up the heat for a second independence referendum. Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP have been given a clear mandate with a crushing victory in Scotland in this week´s general election. But Johnson has already ruled out a new referendum.

My views on this issue are that if Scotland wants to go then it should go. But what are the true feelings of the Scottish people? The SNP triumphed across Scotland in the general election before the independence vote and then rejected a breakaway from the rest of the United Kingdom a few months later. So having an SNP government is a not a sure sign that Scotland does want to leave. Sturgeon is an able politician and will continue to push for an independence vote until she gets a new referendum giving Johnson yet another headache.

If the Prime Minister does bow to pressure and Scotland does get another vote it would be late next year so by that stage Britain will have already left the European Union. So in theory Scotland would have to apply to join the EU and Spain could disrupt these plans because it has its own fears over Catalonia which also wants a breakaway from Spain. It is a difficult call. I suspect Johnson will attempt to push the independence vote on to the back burner and hope that circumstances change.

There is one interesting point though. More people voted for Brexit in Scotland than they did for the SNP, so there are certainly mixed messages north of the border. It would be a blow to the United Kingdom to lose Scotland but if you vote to go, you go.