Image: SNP MPs walk out of the Commons in June 2018 in protest at not being allowed time to debate amendments to the Withdrawal Act. Credit: PA Images/All rights reserved.
Scotland’s aristocratic and middle classes have long told themselves that thanks to the successful wars of independence (and of course, the icons of Wallace and Bruce), Scotland and England came together as two equal partners – first in the union of the crowns and then through a political union – rather than through conquest and subjection. It was a theme which would re-emerge during the 2014 independence referendum with the slogan that “Scotland should lead not leave” the UK in a partnership of equals.
The Brexit process has told voters in Scotland much about the nature of Devolution and Scotland’s standing in the partnership within the union of the UK. Whatever the UK is, it’s not a union of equals – and Scotland’s standing in the UK contrasts strongly with the status and standing of our Celtic cousin Ireland in the union of the EU.
