The more things change, the more they stay the same – The struggle for independence on the British periphery in a post-Brexit context
Recent polling suggests that, in Scotland, Brexit seems to be having an impact on the political behaviour of some who voted to remain in the Union in September 2014, so much so that Scottish National Party (SNP) members and supporters now believe independence is at last within touching distance. Eve...
Tallennettuna:
| Julkaisussa: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb, |
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| Päätekijä: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Kieli: | Anglais |
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Observatoire de la société britannique
2023
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| Aiheet: | |
| Linkit: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Yhteenveto: | Recent polling suggests that, in Scotland, Brexit seems to be having an impact on the political behaviour of some who voted to remain in the Union in September 2014, so much so that Scottish National Party (SNP) members and supporters now believe independence is at last within touching distance. Even psephologist John Curtice, who, up until recently, cautioned against reading too much into a possible link between the two issues, agrees. However, isn’t it a fact that the SNP were talking about holding a second independence referendum as early as late 2014 and again in the wake of the Brexit vote, in mid-2016, when by definition few pro-Union Scots had already changed their mind? Not only this, but as evidenced by the Brexit “saga”, it may well be that referendums – although they are fundamentally democratic exercises – raise more (thorny) questions than they can answer. As for Wales, a leave-nation by a margin of some 5 per cent in the 2016 EU referendum, it, too, has seen a pro-independence surge, but the lessons to be drawn from this are probably far from obvious. |
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