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Thousands Of Scots Rally For Freedom After Brexit Vote, But Is It Enough To Support Independence?

By Coburn Palmer
Published on: 10:58 PST, Jul 30, 2016

Thousands of people marched through Glasgow, Scotland’s second largest city, Saturday to demand their independence from the U.K. after the June Brexit vote to leave the EU succeeded last month.

The 3,000 pro-independence marchers carried Scottish “Yes” signs and also freedom flags from Catalonia, which is fighting to break ties with Spain.

The campaign group All Under One Banner, which organized the Scottish independence march through social media, reported the demonstration as a huge success, according to ITV.

“[It was] our biggest and best independence march ever.”

The group has vowed to continue their demonstrations for independence until Scotland is finally “free.” One protest banner described the post-Brexit UK in unflattering terms, reports RT.

“Unfettered, undemocratic, uncivilized, unhinged.”

The U.K. was deeply divided over the recent June Brexit vote with the U.K. as a whole voting to leave the EU, while Scotland and Ireland voted to remain and England and Wales backed Brexit.

In fact, almost 62 percent of Scots voted to remain in the EU, which prompted the country’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to say another independence vote was very likely.

Sturgeon vowed to do all in her power to allow Scotland to remain in the EU, saying it was democratically unacceptable to force her people out of the union against their will, according to ITV.

“I am proud of Scotland and how we voted. We proved we are a modern, outward looking, open and inclusive country and we said clearly that we don’t want to leave the EU.”

Scotland held an independence referendum in 2014 and 55 percent of the electorate voted to remain in the U.K. Public opinion hasn’t changed much since then, according to a new YouGov poll that shows only 47 percent of Scots would vote to leave the U.K. if another referendum were held today.

That’s up 1 percent from two years ago, and while that may not be a huge change, it does show a shift in Scottish attitudes towards independence after the June Brexit vote, Sturgeon told RT.

“The UK that we voted to stay part of in 2014, a UK within the EU, is fundamentally changing. The outlook for the UK is uncertainty, upheaval and unpredictability.

“In these circumstances, it may well be that the option that offers us the greatest certainty, stability and the maximum control over our destiny, is that of independence.”

The changing face of British politics after the Brexit vote may well drive the Scottish people to demand another independence referendum. In 2014, Scots voted to remain as part of the U.K. in part because of the inclusion in the EU, but now everything has changed.

Saturday’s independence march through Glasgow was largely a result of that Brexit vote as many Scots feel a vote allowing them to break away from the U.K. is back on the table, Stewart Kerr Brown, a spokesperson for the Yes West Lothian pro-independence group, told RT.

“In 2014, there were promises made to the Scottish people. Obviously, that has changed now.”

Scotland isn’t the only country considering independence following the Brexit vote; a wave of nationalist sentiment is sweeping the European continent. Catalonia, an autonomous region in the northeast of Spain, has joined that nationalist movement and cried out for their independence.

The leader of the nationalist movement has argued that Britain’s decision to leave the EU despite the desire by Ireland and Scotland to remain means Catalonia can claim independence without Spain’s consent.

He has mapped out an 18-month strategy to secede from Spain that includes approving a constitution, creating a national bank, and establishing other institutions necessary for independence.

What do you think? Should Scotland vote to leave the U.K.?

[Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images]

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