Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-11-25)

P O L I T I C S

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Bloomberg Businessweek November 25, 2019

Edited by
Jillian Goodman and
ILLUSTRATION Ethan Bronner

BY

CHARLOTTE

POLLET

In Scotland, where every voting region chose to

remain in the EU, the Scottish National Party (SNP)

is gunning to retake districts it lost in 2017’s snap

election by calling for another independence ref-

erendum. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, Brexit

has pushed the question of Irish unification to

the forefront two decades since the Good Friday

Agreement largely settled it. The governments in

London and Dublin are concerned that any upset

to the delicate balance of power might reignite sec-

tarian violence. Even in Wales, which backed leav-

ing the EU, a recent poll suggested more people

are flirting with the idea of divorcing the English. A

party there seeking to break away is aiming to win

a record number of seats and set up a commission

to look into how independence might work.

“We have a really special opportunity to escape

the chaos in Westminster and to build a future for

ourselves,” says Stephen Flynn, an SNP candidate

running in the Scottish oil city of Aberdeen. “Our

core message is to escape the Boris Johnson Brexit

disaster that is looming.”

Johnson was quick to visit Scotland on Nov. 7,

a little more than a week after elections were

With the general election campaign picking up

momentum in mid-November, Prime Minister

Boris Johnson took a moment to gaze into the

future. “In 10 years’ time, I confidently prophe-

size,wewillallbecitizensofa proud,strong,and

wholeUnitedKingdom—moreunitedthanever,”

hetoldanaudienceatanelectric-car factory in

central England.

That such a comment could be framed as a bold

prediction rather than a platitude shows the scale

of the chaos the country has found itself in since

voting to leave the European Union in 2016. While

the Dec. 12 election was supposed to break the

deadlock in Parliament so the U.K.’s psychodrama

over its relationship with continental Europe could

finally be resolved, the political dynamics in the

three other constituent parts of the U.K. seem more

about whether the country should exist at all.

The Breakup of the

U.K. May Be Nigh

● The general election has

raised nationalist feelings in

Scotland and Northern Ireland