Scotland’s march towards independence is gathering pace. The leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Nicola Sturgeon, is pushing for a second referendum on the issue by the end of 2023. Her ambitions have been helped by the outcome of the Holyrood elections in May, in which the SNP and the Scottish Green Party secured a pro-independence majority. The dial of public opinion has, for most of the past 12 months, been consistently in favour of independence despite a dip in the first quarter of 2021, according to research from the Financial Times.
A game of constitutional chess between Downing Street and Bute House is now unfolding as London and Edinburgh jostle for position over a potential referendum. Yet, this will be a sideshow to a broader and more important debate playing out between the pro-independence and pro-union campaigns in Scotland. At the heart of this exchange will be one question: can Scotland afford to go it alone?
