The EconomistJanuary 30th 2021 Britain 452 beyond legal question. If not, it is a dead
end; the eu, which an independent Scot-
land would seek to join, would ignore the
result. So would the British government,
with which it would need to haggle over
fishing grounds and pensions in lengthy
divorce talks. “We don’t get endless shots at
this,” says a party figure. The deadlock
which followed Catalonia’s unsanctioned
referendum in 2017 serves as a warning.
Mr Russell’s plan seeks to navigate be-
tween the frustration of his members and
the constraints of the Scotland Act. If the
snp wins in May, it will ask Mr Johnson’s
government again for a Section 30 order. If
Mr Johnson refuses, the Scottish Parlia-
ment would pass a referendum bill any-
way, and dare the British government to
challenge it in the Supreme Court.
Mr Russell’s scheme will probably unite
the independence movement until May’s
elections, says an snphand, “but it doesn’t
really have legs beyond that.” The British
government thinks that whatever the re-
sult of the elections, the Scottish Parlia-
ment does not have the power to call a ref-
erendum; and if the Supreme Court looked
likely to rule in the Scottish government’s
favour, the uk Parliament could swiftly
change the law to nix the vote.
Alternatively, London could call the na-
tionalists’ bluff and dare Ms Sturgeon to
push ahead with the unrecognised referen-
dum she has sought to avoid. Douglas Ross,
the leader of the Scottish Tories, said he’d
boycott any “unofficial” poll. Scotland’s
constitutional divisions risk becoming
sharper if the two governments cannot
even agree on the rules for settling them,
notes Stephen Tierney, a professor of con-
stitutional theory at Edinburgh University.
Whatever happens in May, it is a diffi-
cult moment for Ms Sturgeon’s leadership.
An inquiry is probing what she knew about
allegations of sexual assault against her
predecessor, Alex Salmond, who was later
acquitted in court. If Mr Johnson digs in, or
the Supreme Court rules in his favour, de-
mands for independence may grow, mak-
ing separation only a matter of time until a
futureBritishprimeministergivesin.But
it isequallypossiblethatthecausewillde-
flateasBrexitsettles,andScots’focusturns
tothestateoftheirschoolsandhospitals
after 14 yearsofsnpgovernment.
Farfrombeinginevitable,thebreak-up
oftheukwouldbehistoricallyremarkable.
Sincethesnp’s birthin 1934 morethan 100
stateshavesecuredindependence.Almost
allwerebornofwar,decolonisationoreco-
nomic collapse. Breaking away from a
prosperousdemocracyinpeacetimeisan-
othermatter.“Thereareplentyofexamples
of nationalist movements in advanced
democraticcountries,but noneof these
hasledtoindependence,”notesNicolaMc-
Ewen,a professorofterritorialpoliticsat
EdinburghUniversity.Thesnphassetit-
selftheunusual taskofdismantlingthe
Britishstatewithintheconstraintsofa le-
galorderthatisstackedinitsopponents’
favour.Itwantsrevolution,withoutbreak-
ingsomuchasa window. 7Land that is lost now?Sources: YouGov/Sunday Times; BMG; Deltapoll; ICM; Ipsos MORI;JLPartners;Ashcroft;Panelbase;SavantaComRes;Survation;KantarEnglandWalesScotlandNorthern Ireland6050403020100“How likely or unlikely do you think it is that
within ten years Scotland will leave the UK?”
Bynation,%responding,January 2021
Likely Unlikely“ShouldScotlandbeanindependentcountry?”
Scotland,%responding
60504030212019181716152014NoYes“T
hey saymy crew’s British. We pull up
like, ‘Who’s with it?’ Load that clip
like grrr, finish,” rapped jEmz, a member of
OneFour, a Sydney drill crew, in 2019, re-
sponding to accusations that the group
feigns a British identity to polish its street
cred. The threat to mow down critics did
not impress Mac11, a member of 21District,
a rival crew. “Trying to be ukBronx, bunch
of flops. Do your own thing, you wannabe
British gronks.”
Rappers outside the United States used
to sound American. Nowadays, the spread
of grime music and ukdrill means aping
England’s rappers is fashionable. Grime,which uses very rapid beats, emerged in
east London in the early 2000s. Drill ap-
peared in Chicago a decade later and soon
migrated to Britain, where it got faster and
darker. Drake, a prominent Canadian rap-
per, has borrowed from ukdrill and pro-
moted many London rappers.
Crucial to ukdrill’s success is multicul-
tural London English (mle), a dialect that
combines Jamaican patois with Cockney,
American and African slang, as well as oth-
er influences from London’s melting-pot.
“Akhi”, from Arabic, is commonly used for
“brother”, its direct translation, and also
“friend”. “The language comes first from
the street,” says Tony Thorne of King’s Col-
lege London, who has compiled a drill dic-
tionary. “Then the performers elaborate
the language, then they feed it back to the
street.” mle has helped English rappers
create a distinctive sound, with a contro-
versial social commentary.
As ukdrill has spread around the world,
so has mle. Dutch crew 73 De Pijp mix in
words like “mandem” (from Jamaican pa-
tois, meaning a group of male friends) and
“oppboys” (a London neologism for a rival
gang). Spanish crew 970blockuse mlelin-
go like “you get me” and “gally” and break
into English to compare themselves to
Headie One, a London mc: “I’m the one like
Headie.” Catarrh Nisin, a Japanese grime
mc, refers to Boy Better Know, a London
grime crew, and raps “Keep it grimy.” Some
Irish mcs, such as j.b2, have abandoned
their native accents altogether.
mlehas also crept into Australian drill.
OneFour use a range of mle words, such as
“bruddas” (brothers) and “shh” (silence), a
term popularised by Headie One in 2018 to
self-censor possibly incriminating lyrics.
Even 21District use some mle, despite their
criticism of OneFour’s Anglophilia. Many
Australian drill mcs are of Polynesian de-
scent and their accents are already differ-
ent to most young Australians, so a multi-
ethnic dialect appeals to them. Australia,
like Britain, has tight gun laws and plenty
of knife crime, so London’s lingo is more
relevant than gun-centric American rap.
“Cheffed” (stabbed), “rambo” (long knife)
and “ching” (knife) are common. Austra-
lian rappers mix mlewith local slang, old
Aussie lingo—“digger” (friend), used by
Anzac troops in the first world war—and
Polynesian—“uso”, Samoan for “brother”.
Variants of mlehave emerged in other
English cities, even among young middle-
class folk. The same thing is starting to
happen in Australia. Kate Burridge, profes-
sor of linguistics at Monash University in
Melbourne, notes that her teenage son jok-
ingly uses mlewords such as “mandem”.
Her colleague Howard Manns says some
young Australians use “peng” to mean at-
tractive or high-quality. It is thought to de-
rive from “kushempeng”—fantastic mari-
juana, in Jamaican patois. 7ukdrill music is taking London slang
around the worldLanguageLearning the drill