For anybody paying attention to UK politics, it has been an entertaining few weeks. Truss and Sunak are dueling it out to see who can be the worst person publicly in hopes of achieving the coveted spot of Tory leader, and one of the primary issues is Scotland. Both Truss and Sunak have openly called for the curtailing, if not removal, of devolved powers, and speak of the SNP as an unpopular, dictatorial menace threatening a supposed majority of Scots who love the Union.
This raises an interesting point. Why? I was talking with a friend about this yesterday; during the lead-up to the 2014 independence referendum, the focus of the Unionists was on appealing to Scottish moderates, arguing for the risks to Scotland's stability and economy. Now, however, this is gone. Tory politicians openly talk of suppressing the same parliamentary democracy they uphold as the pinnacle of government when it happens in Westminster, because now it threatens to tear apart the UK. This is not unique to the Tories; Scottish Labour opposes independence just as fervently. For Scottish voters, it is not an issue of which of the five main parties to support, but of Unionism versus Nationalism; a vote for Labour or Conservative is a vote for the Union, and the two parties exist primarily as opposition to the SNP, with allegations abounding of backdoor coalitions to not oppose the other in areas of mixed support for the SNP. To put it simply, Scotland has been pushed to breaking point, and there no longer exist these moderates; you either stand with the UK, or with Scotland.
Obviously, such repression will be unpopular in Scotland; the SNP and the pro-independence Greens hold a majority in Holyrood, and while the 2014 referendum was a close win for the Union, polls for 2023 already suggest majority support for independence. Despite their best efforts, the UK is losing Scotland. Westminster knows this.
For as long as the territories of the UK are ruled by the bourgeoisie, the relationship will be an extractive, exploitative one. As the capitalist world increasingly descends into chaos, the exploitation only worsens as the bourgeoisie attempts to cut their losses. The loss of Scotland would only accelerate this disintegration. Given the current energy crisis (caused by the inevitable processes of this collapse), Scotland's production of energy, of which it is a net exporter, is crucial. Westminster knows that they need Scotland, but they can't afford to keep making the necessary concessions of devolved powers. The tide has turned on support for independence, and they know it cannot be turned back.
This latest string of political promises to suppress Scotland bodes poorly for the future. Regardless of how many are followed through on, the future leaders of Westminster are openly signalling an intent to quell Scottish dissent. They have plans not of coming to a new compromise with the Scottish people, but of controlling our parliament and parties by any means necessary. The aim now is to manufacture consent among the English majority for such actions; attacks on Sturgeon as an individual, for example, seek to abstract the problem from a political to a personal one. This will, of course, only bolster support for independence in the long run, and by some means or another Scotland will break free of the UK; whether or not Westminster knows this is unclear, but, as always with the bourgeoisie, they create the circumstances for their own defeat.
Prepare for The Troubles 2: Scottish Boogaloo.
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