Scottish independence debate adds to Truss’s troubles

Bloomberg

A renewed push for Scottish independence is about to force its way onto embattled UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s agenda.
The debate over a second referendum on Scotland breaking with the rest of the UK goes to the Supreme Court in London on Tuesday, where judges were to consider a request by the semi-autonomous government in Edinburgh whether it can call a vote without Westminster’s permission.
Truss’s Conservatives, who are in opposition in Scotland, accuse the Scottish National Party government of pursuing a “self-serving, obsessive push for independence.” First Minister Nicola Sturgeon argues the move was necessary due to the UK government’s refusal to consider another vote, despite Scots repeatedly backing her SNP at the ballot box.
“If Westminster had any respect at all for Scottish democracy, this court hearing wouldn’t be necessary,” Sturgeon told delegates to the SNP’s annual conference in Aberdeen on Monday. “But Westminster has no such respect.”
The resurfacing of questions over the union — a matter that’s part of the bedrock of the Conservative Party’s makeup — is sure to heighten tensions between London and Edinburgh, while adding to Truss’s challenges as she hemorrhages voter support and comes under intense pressure from Tory lawmakers over economic and financial policy.
The issue is “necessary and in the public interest,” Dorothy Bain, Scotland’s senior lawyer, said at the start of the hearing on Tuesday. It’s a “festering” problem and one she hopes the UK’s top judges can “finally resolve.” Regardless of the outcome of the two days of legal deliberations at the country’s highest court, the case reopens an explosive debate over the effective end of the 315-year-old UK less than a decade after voters in Scotland rejected independence in a referendum that was agreed to by then-Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.