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It started with this article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/13/irish-scots-and-welsh-leaders-meet-to-plot-break-up-uk/
Basically right now an independence referendum in Scotland can only be authorised by the Westminster (London) government. Whether Scotland wants one or not, thats how it is.
For the first time there are independence-supporting administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The first ministers of those countries will meet on Monday and agree a path forward, ultimately to make it harder for Westminster to say 'no' to future referendums.
This doesn't 'kick start the break up of the UK' - all it does is put pressure on Westminster not to block independence referendums when there's an appetite for them. The Prime Minister and his government can choose to ignore that. Nothing is changing.
The Telegraph and other right-leaning nonsense rags have latched onto this, exaggerating it because its red meat for their target audience. I think that's where the 'Russian interference' is, but I'm not a unionist and one of them might explain it better.
Yankee here. If you have the time, I'd like to know a little bit more on what's actually been happening over there. Honestly, with everything going on, it's been hard to keep up. It's been a lot of noise and very little information.
Sure, what would you like to know?
It hasn't really changed since the 2014 referendum. For/against Scottish independence still hovers around 50:50, usually more on the pro-union side.
Problem is all the dollars flowing across the Atlantic to right-wing causes. Ten years ago Scotland was predominantly left-leaning. The culture wars and brainwashing on social media have lead to a lot of people being preoccupied with things like trans women and immigrants. Immigration is a funny one - we aren't affected as bad with that as, say, the south of England. We actually need immigration to keep society functioning.
Right-wing parties are now something like 30% and is predominantly for remaining in the union, but the lefty vote is split between pro-independence and unionist parties. The majority in Holyrood (the Scottish parliament) is mostly members of Independence supporting parties, but the overall popular vote is for the Union.
Because independence support is not definitive the UK gov's position is 'no' to more referendums. As long as support for independence is split down the middle it'll keep going round in circles and continue to dominate Scottish politics.
What factors do you feel are the predominant drivers of independent sentiment on the left? I know Brexit and rejoining the EU are close to the top, but what makes the right want to stay with the union?
Many factors but probably the biggest is the parade of Conservative governments since and including Margaret Thatcher.
The Conservatives (or 'the Tories') have been wildly popular south of the border but not so much up here. Scotland was very much Tory country at one point but that changed with Thatcher. Her economic policies absolutely devastated many of the poorer parts of the UK but Glasgow and the west of the country were arguably the worst hit. Glasgow has come up a lot but the deprivation there compared to places like London is obscene. Until recently it was one of the poorest areas in Europe (its possible it still is).
Thatcher was followed by Cameron (caused Brexit and 'austerity'), Johnson (Brexit mouthpiece, covid spending), and Truss (50 days in power and managed to crash the economy) amongst others.
The way Westminster works is that every MP is supposed to have roughly a similar number of constituents. Because we have a smaller population than England we have far fewer MPs. So typically the SNP or Labour clears the board in Scotland, while the Tories take England. This leads to a feeling that the Tories are 'imposed' on Scotland as a consequence of the union. Thus, if we were independent we'd be rid of them.
There's other factors, like sectarianism (protestant unionism vs separatist Catholics), wealthy (ie conservative) landowners, etc but the Tories is where most of it comes from.
The right... farming and fishing. There is (or used to be) a feeling that the Tories looked after the farmers and fishermen. Thats largely been trashed since Brexit (both groups lost lots of European grant money). The wealthy landowners have always exercised their power via the Tories and the print media - they worry their land will be taken off them in an independent Scotland (highly likely). Then theres that old chestnut of foreign influence via social media, exacerbating the immigration debate. The right is predominantly Unionist, thus if you're right-leaning you're typically unionist.
Telegraph is right leaning? Damn, idk that.
Yes its nickname is The Torygraph
Well Tories are kinda better if we compare it with far right. The right wing you guys have in UK is nothing compared to what I have in my country (we do not have a presence of left wing in our politics (except for some minority labor unions)).
Pretty sure, yeah. Most of the UK papers are. The only one I know for sure is The Guardian. There's probably others.
The Observer, The Independent and The National (Scottish), The i and The Scotsman are either neutral or lefty.
Is there a "not" missing? The Guardian is left leaning except their transphobia.
Hot take. The guardian is know for being excessively woke to most people. Even i find it a little much sometimes, and I'm a total pinko. Have you any examples of their transphobia? Not being a dick, i've just never, ever heard that before.
I would debate the "most people" part, but I guess we move in different circles. As well as the links posted by toomanypancakes, hundreds of the Guardian's own staff signed a letter criticising its “pattern of publishing transphobic content”.
It is notorious in the trans community for having some strongly transphobic regular columnists.
If you do an online search for "guardian transphobia" you will find numerous media reports and trans people's reddit posts about it over the years.
Here's an article somewhat amusingly from The Guardian on it
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk
Also this vice article includes lots of links to relevant guardian articles
https://www.vice.com/en/article/guardian-trans-journalists/
Thanks for sharing; I genuinely didn't know that was something they'd been criticised for. I'll read the linked articles when I get a chance, but this is certainly news to me.
EDIT. Actually I may not read the articles. One is nearly 20 years old and the newest is over 5.
They're from 2018 and 2022? I'm confused, but you certainly don't have to read them.
I only know BBC when it comes to British media and that feels lefty or neutral
The BBC barely feels neutral, has mostly leaned right over the past decade.
The only major left-leaning non-tabloid one I can think of is the Guardian.
what is non tabloid?
It means semi-serious. Basically, you have broadsheets that purport to push serious journalism and tabloid papers that are more sensationalist and low-brow. Tabloids in the UK include The Sun (hugely popular, Murdoch-owned, right-wing scandal rag) and the way less popular Mirror (a left-leaning paper that sort of emulates The Sun's style in an attempt to appeal to the masses).
Basically the guardian and i (that's their name, a lowercase letter i, it's so stupid)
Meh its okay but they're under pressure to give voice to racist bigots in the interest of 'balance'.
You should listen to 5 live (one of their radio stations). You wouldn't believe what they let some people say live on air.