State of union in UK: Why Brexit should not be followed by 'Scoxit'

WHILE coronavirus and Brexit are top-of-mind for UK policymakers, another inter-related political and economic earthquake is potentially on the horizon.

Support for Scottish independence is surging, and the United Kingdom is facing into perhaps the largest risk to its long territorial integrity. Polls show that up to 55 per cent of the Scottish populace now favour secession from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. And First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set out plans recently for a new Scottish independence referendum after the first one failed in 2014.

A forthcoming bill will set out the proposed question that people will be asked in a new poll which, in constitutional theory at least, requires the assent of the UK government before it moves ahead. So while London technically can block it, it may become politically indefensible for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop the plebiscite if Ms Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) wins big in next year's national elections.