There is a palpable sense of foreboding in Britain at the moment. Months of talks with the European Union on agreeing a free trade deal remain deadlocked even as the December 31 deadline fast approaches when the transition period ends and the UK finally leaves the EU. And across the country coronavirus cases are on the increase, raising the prospect of more restrictions on daily life.
But another looming threat, linked to both Brexit and Covid-19, has potentially even more long-lasting consequences for the very integrity of the UK. Popular support in Scotland to break away from the rest of the Britain has reached unprecedented levels. The latest opinion poll, released last week by market research company Savanta ComRes, shows 58 per cent of Scots now support independence, up from 44 per cent only a year ago.
This poll result was not a one-off result; support for secession in Scotland has been rising steadily. In 2014, Scots voted to reject independence in a referendum.
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which campaigns for independence and holds power in the devolved Scottish government, acknowledged that result as a once-in-a-generation vote. But only six years later, party leader Nicola Sturgeon now maintains that Scottish independence is “in clear sight”.
If, as expected, she is re-elected as Scotland’s First Minister in the election next May, she is expected to call on the UK government to allow a second referendum, confident this time of victory. Though the British government of Boris Johnson has so far ruled out allowing another referendum, many observers predict that this will be a hard position to maintain if the SNP does well in the election. The key factor in the SNP’s renewed confidence is Brexit.
The SNP leader has long argued that Britain’s decision to leave the EU in the 2016 national referendum does not apply to Scotland, since most people there voted to stay. And this argument seems to be winning over Scots. The strongest reason given in the latest opinion poll for supporting independence was a feeling that the UK parliament at Westminster did not have Scotland’s interests at heart. Support for independence is now growing among Scots who voted to leave the EU as well as “remainers”.
The SNP has been accused of using the pandemic as another weapon in its fight to persuade Scots that they would be better off outside Britain. Ms Sturgeon has worked tirelessly to portray her government as handling the pandemic more successfully than the national government in London. Coronavirus death rates are actually higher in Scotland than in England and those for vulnerable elderly people in care homes are over twice the rate south of the border. But this has not dented Ms Sturgeon’s popularity or that of her party.
One factor in her favour is the unpopularity in Scotland of the current British government, and in particular Prime Minister Johnson. Polling shows over three-quarters of Scots disapprove of Mr Johnson’s leadership, while 72 per cent think Ms Sturgeon is doing a good job as their First Minister. No surprise, then, that Ms Sturgeon is keen to demand an independence referendum sooner rather than later, knowing a change of government and prime minister in London could alter the picture.
Mr Johnson certainly did not help his standing in Scotland by declaring recently that the idea of devolving powers to a Scottish assembly 20 years ago was a “mistake” by the then Labour government of Tony Blair. While it may be true that Mr Blair’s aim of using devolution as a way to halt any move towards full independence has failed, Mr Johnson’s remarks went down badly in Scotland.
It may seem odd that Scots would want to leave the UK based on the unpopularity of one particular British government. But Ms Sturgeon and her party are past-masters at promoting and exploiting a latent culture of grievance among Scots against a more powerful England that has supposedly exploited them for centuries and continues to do so.
It is a policy that reveals an anti-English chauvinism behind the SNP’s progressive, left-wing facade and its supposedly inclusive notion of Scottish nationalism. It is also an image belied by the deep interconnectedness of England and Scotland over centuries and the leading role of Scots in all aspects of British life, including at the top levels of government.
Ms Sturgeon and the SNP may have a poor record in governing Scotland; their claims that the country would be economically better off outside the UK may be groundless. But polls show their agenda of independence for Scotland is one that is finding growing support.
With the increasing likelihood of another referendum, the latest polls show that those who seek to keep the UK together need to rethink their strategy. Arguments based on economics – that national spending per head is greater in Scotland than in England or that the British treasury is currently providing tens of billions in coronavirus support that an independent Scotland would be unable to match – are clearly not enough to win the argument.
What is clearly needed is a political campaign to underline the strength of the UK – the reality of a modern, cohesive, interdependent country where individual national traditions do not imply the need for political borders and where Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish have much more in common than divides them.
This should be a priority for the national government, since the end of the UK would be an unprecedented act of national self-harm that would undermine British global influence much more than Brexit, and would weaken liberal democracy in a world where authoritarian models are gaining power.
David Powell is a media analyst and former journalist with a range of pan-Arab broadcast media, including BBC Arabic
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Kill%20Bill%20Volume%201
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Quentin%20Tarantino%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Uma%20Thurman%2C%20David%20Carradine%20and%20Michael%20Madsen%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%204.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Ajax v Real Madrid, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
SPECS
Nissan 370z Nismo
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 363hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh184,500
The specs
Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo 16-cylinder
Transmission: 7-speed auto
0-100kmh 2.3 seconds
0-200kmh 5.5 seconds
0-300kmh 11.6 seconds
Power: 1500hp
Torque: 1600Nm
Price: Dh13,400,000
On sale: now
%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fislamic-economy-consumer-spending-to-increase-45-to-3-2tn-by-2024-1.936583%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3EGlobal%20Islamic%20economy%20to%20grow%203.1%25%20to%20touch%20%242.4%20trillion%20by%202024%3C%2Fa%3E%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fuk-economy-plunges-into-worst-ever-recession-after-record-20-4-contraction-1.1062560%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3EUK%20economy%20plunges%20into%20worst-ever%20recession%20after%20record%2020.4%25%20contraction%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalnews.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fislamic-economy-consumer-spending-to-increase-45-to-3-2tn-by-2024-1.936583%22%20target%3D%22_self%22%3EIslamic%20economy%20consumer%20spending%20to%20increase%2045%25%20to%20%243.2tn%20by%202024%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In Praise of Zayed
A thousand grains of Sand whirl in the sky
To mark the journey of one passer-by
If then a Cavalcade disturbs the scene,
Shall such grains sing before they start to fly?
What man of Honour, and to Honour bred
Will fear to go wherever Truth has led?
For though a Thousand urge him to retreat
He'll laugh, until such counsellors have fled.
Stands always One, defiant and alone
Against the Many, when all Hope has flown.
Then comes the Test; and only then the time
Of reckoning what each can call his own.
History will not forget: that one small Seed
Sufficed to tip the Scales in time of need.
More than a debt, the Emirates owe to Zayed
Their very Souls, from outside influence freed.
No praise from Roderic can increase his Fame.
Steadfastness was the Essence of his name.
The changing years grow Gardens in the Sand
And build new Roads to Sand which stays the same.
But Hearts are not rebuilt, nor Seed resown.
What was, remains, essentially Alone.
Until the Golden Messenger, all-wise,
Calls out: "Come now, my Friend!" - and All is known
- Roderic Fenwick Owen
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
England-South Africa Test series
1st Test England win by 211 runs at Lord's, London
2nd Test South Africa win by 340 runs at Trent Bridge, Nottingham
3rd Test July 27-31 at The Oval, London
4th Test August 4-8 at Old Trafford, Manchester
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Favourite food: Tabbouleh, greek salad and sushi
Favourite TV show: That 70s Show
Favourite animal: Ferrets, they are smart, sensitive, playful and loving
Favourite holiday destination: Seychelles, my resolution for 2020 is to visit as many spiritual retreats and animal shelters across the world as I can
Name of first pet: Eddy, a Persian cat that showed up at our home
Favourite dog breed: I love them all - if I had to pick Yorkshire terrier for small dogs and St Bernard's for big
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope
Defenders: John Stones, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Gary Cahill, Ashley Young, Danny Rose, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Midfielders: Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph
Forwards: Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
