UK: Battle Sturgeon vs. May

There's a battle between two ladies in the UK - Scottish Minister Nicola Sturgeon and UK's PM Theresa May. On Monday Nicola Sturgeon shocked everybody by announcing another referendum on Scottish independence.

There's a battle between two ladies in the UK — Scottish Minister Nicola Sturgeon and UK's PM Theresa May. On Monday Nicola Sturgeon shocked everybody by announcing another referendum on Scottish independence. And that's before Great Britain exits the EU. Apart from the sentimental reminiscing about the Braveheart times, the main argument for Scottish nationalists was that last year they voted to remain a part of the EU, while London couldn't care less.

This week the British Parliament, consisting mostly of Englishmen, gave the government a green light for a so-called tough Brexit. For Scots this is an anathema. Theresa May's first reaction to Scotland's initiative was that this was an obstacle in her negotiations with Brussels. That's true, she doesn't have a united country behind her anymore. The print media joined in on Tuesday, that very polemic journalism. Let's see what the right-wing populist Daily Mail has on its front page. "Hands Off Our Brexit, Nicola!" Next is a headline of the conservative Daily Telegraph. "The New Battle Over Britain", similar to WWII. Left-wing liberal pro-European The Guardian says "May's Brexit Plan Upstaged". This is true. UK's notification of exiting the EU was supposed to be filed this week, but it wasn't.

Tomorrow's traditional The Times clarifies everything. Turns out "Scots Want to Remain in the UK". Such a poll really does exist. But there's also another poll published in Scotland's largest newspaper The Scotsman. Support for independence really did hit a record high.

The outside world and the British themselves are losing their minds over the issue and the overflow of journalists' opinions. But here's what we see as most important. Even the Scottish nationalists, while promoting the slogan of exiting the UK, use the EU topic only as a pretext, they withdrew their motto of remaining in the EU. So even the Scots are disappointed in it. Will the British be able to save their centuries-old and, as Theresa May says, precious union? That's the question. Now a lot of my British friends say they know what we went through when the USSR started falling apart.