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200 years ago britain proudly ruled the
waves
and about a quarter of the world
but the british empire has shrunk again
and again now the united kingdom itself
england scotland wales and northern
ireland
is weaker than at any point in living
memory
tensions have flared in northern ireland
in the most serious clashes with police
for years
and in scotland a fierce political
battle for independence
is in full swing scotland's future
must be in scotland's hands
the union between england and scotland
goes back over 300 years
but it's under increasing strain
and if scotland were to go could it pave
the way for northern ireland and even
wales
to do the same
at this organic farm outside edinburgh
almost all of the produce is proudly
grown
in scotland and the farm's founder mike
thinks scotland would be better off as
an independent country
it's a hot topic right now as the
scottish national party
have promised to ask westminster for an
independence referendum
should they win a majority at the
forthcoming election in may
my partner's family are from yorkshire
and they think of scotland as just
another part of england
rather than its own its own country and
also you see politicians do that as well
they'd be wrong though scotland has a
long and proud history
as an independent nation the romans
never managed to conquer it
and for much of its history it was
fighting its english neighbors
south of the border england had joined
with wales in 1536
a union with scotland came about after
the queen of england
elizabeth the first died in 1603
her cousin james who was king of
scotland
took over the english throne the two
countries now shared a king
and an army but had separate parliaments
and laws
a few decades later scotland tried to
set up a colony
new caledonia in what is now panama
it was a disaster and scotland was left
in serious debt
so when a union with england was
proposed it looked to some like a
sensible financial decision
and the acts of union were passed by
1707.
some scots looked south of the border
and thought that it would be
good to have a relationship with this
much more powerful richer
nation with its bigger market
the scots could trade with the english
colonies in the caribbean
scotland then was able to trade and
tobacco
and that was the basis of glasgow's rise
in the 18th century
ireland was later strong-armed into the
union in 1801
but this was short-lived as in 1922 the
country was split in two
with the irish free state becoming
independent and northern ireland
remaining part of the uk while the
opportunities of empire may no longer
exist
for members of the union being part of
the uk still has its advantages
for a start the uk is still scotland's
main trading partner
60 of all scottish exports go to the
rest of britain
that's almost triple what it exports to
the rest of the world
excluding europe andy co-runs a brewery
outside edinburgh
and for him trade with the uk is a
compelling reason to stay
in the union for us the market in
in england has grown in importance
it's very easy to sell across the uk no
limitations in terms of us
traveling into england with independence
you will have a land border between
england
and and scotland and i could see a much
more difficult scenario but some
have always thought scotland would be
better off standing on its own two feet
and by the 1960s a nationalist voice in
scottish politics
was gaining ground the scottish national
party or the snp
who won their first seat in westminster
in 1967
in the years that followed the
nationalist cause received an unexpected
boost the discovery of oil off the coast
of scotland
liquid gold britain now has oil
billions and billions of barrels of it
and has been quietly laughing at the
doorstep
all the time in the 1980s oil revenue
exploded
and many thought scotland should see
more of this money which added around
193
billion pounds to the uk economy between
1975
and 2020 this was coupled with
de-industrialization
in the 1980s under british prime
minister margaret thatcher
she was deeply disliked in scotland and
this boosted calls for independence
in 1997 scotland voted in favor of a
devolved parliament
which was then created by tony blair
britain's prime minister
it's every single aerial stop we're all
moving forward
and we're moving forward together this
meant scotland had its own parliament
for the first time in nearly
300 years and devolution gave scotland
the power to make decisions on areas
like agriculture
education and health known as devolved
matters
while uk-wide concerns such as
immigration foreign policy and offence
were managed by westminster and were
known as reserved matters
the uk government still provided
financial support to scotland
this was in the form of a block grant
and together with income tax national
insurance payments
and other rates from within scotland
helped fund the work of the scottish
parliament
some unionists say scotland couldn't
survive without this financial support
from westminster
because scotland raises less tax and
spends more per person
than the rest of the uk in 2019
scotland spent 8.6 more than it earned
compared with 2.6 for the uk overall
but nationalists say if scotland could
control its own economic policies
it could stimulate growth and help close
this gap
and some have been fighting hard to
prove it
the establishment of the holyrood
parliament in edinburgh
it was believed would see the end of
nationalism and that would be
enough because scotland would be
legislating
on scottish issues however
that didn't happen because what
devolution did was encourage um
the nationalists and allowed them to ask
for more
devolution
in 2011 the snp won a majority at
hollyrood
which gave them a platform to ask for
scottish independence
but the referendum that followed was a
disappointment for them
in 2014 scotland voted to remain in the
uk
by 55 to 45 percent
and that seemed to be the end of that
until two years later and brexit
the celebration started in the early
hours of this morning
the uk had voted to get out of the eu
in 2016 the uk voted to leave the eu
by 52 to 48
but this did not reflect the scottish
portion of the vote where 62
voted to remain many scots felt betrayed
they were being pulled out of the
european union against their will
i think the brexit referendum was a
turning point
in lots of ways because that
massive decision was taken and without
the consent of people in scotland
that reinforced this idea that maybe
the uk couldn't accommodate scotland's
distinctive wishes
as a nation within the united kingdom
back in edinburgh this is certainly how
mike feels
as something he never voted for has now
brought his small business new paperwork
and increased costs brexit at the moment
is just a disaster
i mean i've got about five different
customs agents who had to sign up with
a lot of the jargon we don't understand
i really cannot see any advantage of
brexit and
whoever i've spoken to has never given
me an answer either so
this has helped cement his decision to
vote for a party favoring independence
at the next election
in the hope that there will be a second
scottish independence referendum
i've got no faith i mean westminster's
just proven to be corrupt as far as i'm
concerned
and i just think it's it's better
to be independent and away from that
mike's not alone support for
independence has been rising since 2012
but after the brexit vote it overtook
support for devolution
or remaining partly governed by
westminster
for nationalists part of the renewed
appeal of leaving the uk
is that scotland could rejoin the eu as
an independent nation
but would that mean scotland would be
better off possibly not
that's because the border between
england and scotland would become a
border between what's left of britain
and the eu and this could potentially
disrupt trade
with scotland's main trading partner
some business people like andy are
worried about what independence might
mean for trade with the rest of the uk
brexit has already complicated things
and he worries that scottish
independence
could make things even harder i think
the only real
issue we had recently is just trying to
send a box of beer
for our online shop to northern ireland
which was a right headache
there's obviously now much more
constrains on the movement back and
forth over the irish sea
i think that might put people off to go
down the route of yes vote on scottish
independence
but even andy is on the fence about
independence
and the finer points of trade and
economics may not matter in a debate
about national identity
because as brexit showed the idea of
taking back control
is very powerful it is one of the
architects of brexit
uk prime minister boris johnson who
seems to hold a lot of the cards when it
comes to independence
if the snp were to win a convincing
majority at the next scottish election
then they could ask for another
referendum
but they might not be able to hold it
that's because as the uk government sees
it
the law is clear and the british prime
minister has to grant permission
for a referendum but mr johnson has made
it clear he has no intention of doing
this
whether the scottish parliament has the
legal right to organise a referendum
without westminster's permission
is a question that has never been tested
in court
one option may be to just go ahead
anyway to try to
hold a referendum and so then what
then you may be into a situation that
catalonia found itself in where it
pushed ahead with
a referendum that was not seen to be
within the legal order
of the spanish constitution so you have
stalemates
whatever happens the other devolved
nations will be watching
keenly there are calls in wales for more
devolution
and northern ireland has the possibility
for a referendum on reunification with
ireland
built into the good friday agreement we
are seeing
clear tensions emerging within northern
ireland
it's linked to the implementation of the
northern ireland protocol that was part
of the uk
eu withdrawal agreement
the issue in northern ireland is not
about independence it's about
reunification with the island of ireland
now that may be some way off but that's
a distinctive issue
related also to some of the consequences
of brexit
everyone in this debate hopes that if
any of the nations of the united kingdom
do break away it will be done in a
peaceful and orderly way
that minimizes damage to the economy but
such a neat divorce would have few
precedents in the 20th century the
breakup of countries usually followed
economic chaos
decolonization or war
the increasing calls for independence
could be the most important thing
westminster has to manage
over the coming years while a breakup of
the uk
seemed highly unlikely until recently
it's now possible that scotland could
lead the charge
i'm matthew hallhouse the britain
political correspondent
at the economist for more about the
united kingdom
brexit and scotland's future in europe
you can read the newspaper's briefing
by clicking the link thank you for
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watching
you