Scottish elections: Does independence still matter?

0:01 What's something you want people to know about Scotland?

0:03 Internationally, it annoys me when people

0:05 in Scotland are referred to as British.

0:07 Like, a lot of Scots are even referred to abroad as English,

0:10 which is even more insulting.

0:12 I would say Scotland is so much more than the independence referendum,

0:17 and it's so much more than being a part of the union.

0:37 My name is Annie Ferguson.

0:39 I'm currently 25 years old and I would vote no on the independence referendum.

0:49 Should there be another Scottish independence referendum,

0:52 my vote will be a resounding yes in favor of it.

0:57 Welcome to Scotland.

1:00 With its castles, locks, and moody skies,

1:03 traveling across it can often feel like stepping straight into a fairy tale.

1:07 And much like the pages of an old book,

1:09 the country is filled with rivalries, symbols, and epic struggles for identity.

1:14 Perched at the northernmost edge of the British Isles,

1:17 Scotland's history has been largely forged

1:20 by its relationship to its southern neighbor, England.

1:24 Throughout centuries of treaties, uprisings,

1:25 and political debates, the same question has endured.

1:29 Union with England or independence from it.

1:32 Scotland's future must be in Scotland's hands.

1:35 Over the past decade, one event has reshaped the debate.

1:39 The UK's exit from the European Union in 2016,

1:43 something Scotland voted decisively against.

1:46 It gave new momentum to the independence movement.

1:49 After a defeat in the 2024 UK general election,

1:52 Scotland's main pro-independence party, the SNP,

1:55 is once again leading in the polls.

1:57 And with a Scottish parliamentary election approaching,

2:01 the question of independence is back at the center of their campaign.

2:05 After all, for many Scots, which side of the debate they fall

2:09 on is a defining feature of their very identity.

2:12 What it means to be Scottish.

2:14 I would always say first and foremost that I'm

2:16 a "Sgiathanach" is what we call it in Skye.

2:18 I'm a Skye man.

2:21 And then a Gail second of all and then then a Scot,

2:25 then European and then probably British.

2:29 Reluctantly.

2:30 Yeah.

2:31 Yeah.

2:31 Reluctantly British.

2:32 My family are very strong independent supporters.

2:34 So I've essentially had it drilled into me from when I was I was pretty young.

2:39 Uh, and obviously when I started to have a more of a mind of my own,

2:44 I started to see how beneficial this could be to to Scotland as a whole.

2:49 It's so much more than like a a traditional political debate.

2:52 It's your identity, your values, your culture.

2:55 It's your way of being.

2:57 I grew up in a household where they identified as British, not Scottish.

3:02 I'm British, Scottish, European.

3:05 In recent history, never was a divide between the two

3:08 sides of this debate made more apparent than in 2014,

3:11 at the time of the only ever Scottish independence referendum.

3:15 Yes.

3:15 2 and 1/2 hours to go until the polls close in Scotland.

3:18 The question on the ballot, should Scotland be an independent country?

3:24 Back then, the country chose to remain in the United

3:26 Kingdom with 55% of Scots voting no to independence.

3:30 Scotland has voted no.

3:32 The result has taken the no campaign over

3:35 the line and the official result is a no.

3:39 I just remember even at the age of 12, it's weird being so engaged with it,

3:43 but I just remember the absolute

3:45 crushing disappointment of the 19th of September

3:48 waking up and seeing what had happened and it hadn't gone our way.

3:52 The school environment in my community, it was very very much pro- independence.

3:58 My brother was eligible to vote at the time and he was

4:01 the only one out of his friends that chose to remain within the Union.

4:06 My family had members who fought in the World

4:09 Wars and that really sort of solidified their Britishness.

4:13 My mother is traditionally conservative, pro-monarch,

4:18 pro-unionist, vehemently against an independent Scotland.

4:23 She doesn't agree with Scotland having its own government, for example.

4:28 What Annie is referring to here is a system of governance known as devolution.

4:32 Back in 1707, Scotland and England signed the Acts of Union,

4:37 creating the Kingdom of Great Britain and a single unified parliament in London.

4:41 Nearly three centuries later, in 1997,

4:44 Scottish citizens voted to restore Scotland's Parliament.

4:47 Today, that devolved parliament controls key areas like healthcare,

4:51 education, and policing.

4:53 But crucial matters like foreign policy, defense,

4:56 and immigration remain in the hands of the UK Parliament,

5:00 where Scottish MPs hold 57 of the 650 seats.

5:06 For some, the current system is still not good enough.

5:09 I'm a boat trip skipper for tour boats in Portree.

5:13 The Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands is

5:15 one of the most sparsely populated areas in the UK.

5:19 The human population on the island is around 12,000.

5:22 The sheep population about 10 times as high.

5:26 So, we're heading up to the aisle of Rona today.

5:29 Uh, and Rona is actually a privately owned island.

5:32 There's one person that lives out in Rona full time year round,

5:37 which is quite, gets quite lonely, I would say.

5:40 Up here in Skye, the centralised

5:43 government in London feels particularly distant.

5:46 It's one of the busiest tourist destinations in in Scotland.

5:48 We see almost nothing back in return for the revenue we raise.

5:52 We have very poor infrastructure.

5:55 The only way I see this happening, the only way I see improvements in local

5:58 governments being made is through independence because

6:01 currently the devolved government just cannot sustain

6:04 or support the the adequate funding that's required.

6:07 Like Ian, Annie also wishes things could be different for her community.

6:12 I'm from North Airshire at the west coast of Scotland.

6:16 I'm a first generation uni student,

6:17 so like it means so much to like my family that I'm actually a university.

6:21 My school was very disadvantaged and a very low

6:25 percentage of people from my school enter a higher university.

6:29 Just based on where you're from, you're already

6:32 at such a disadvantage in terms of employment,

6:35 in terms of health, in terms of opportunities.

6:38 Unlike Ian, however, Annie doesn't think independence is the solution.

6:41 I'm very much I would say the outlier um the minority

6:45 if you look at youth and how they would vote.

6:49 I don't believe that becoming an independent nation

6:52 would be the answer to all of our problems.

6:55 I think that is such a misconception.

6:58 Yes, there are drawbacks to being a part of the union,

7:01 but right now in the state of the world

7:04 the advantages outweigh the negatives and the logistics

7:08 and the capacity that Scotland has to govern

7:12 and govern effectively isn't quite there yet for me.

7:16 Some of the main concerns

7:18 of those who oppose independence are naturally economic.

7:21 From oil and gas to fishing, manufacturing, and of course, whiskey production,

7:25 Scotland has a diversified economy that generates

7:28 over 100 billion euros in exports annually.

7:31 The UK, however, remains by far Scotland's main trading partner,

7:35 with 60% of Scottish exports destined for it.

7:38 EU countries account for only about 18% of Scotland's exports.

7:44 I always have rejected this argument that Scotland couldn't stand in its own.

7:48 It might take some time to really reap the benefits of it,

7:51 but I see absolutely no reason why we couldn't.

7:54 Of course, for Ian and many other Scottish people, the desire for independence,

7:58 or the opposition to it extends far beyond mere

8:02 economic considerations to matters that may be less concrete,

8:05 but are just as powerful.

8:06 Things like culture, values, in some cases, religion, and language.

8:12 I grew up in a Gaelic speaking family

8:15 um running all the way back to my grandparents.

8:18 When we were very young, we all spoke Gaelic pretty much exclusively

8:21 in the house and then obviously the older we got,

8:23 we spoke a bit more English in the house as well.

8:25 So still, even nowadays about 50/50 balance.

8:28 For Gaelic speakers, I would say the we've been a very oppressed

8:31 group of people in Scotland for quite a long time.

8:34 Um even more so across the UK.

8:37 Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language that for centuries

8:40 was among the most widely spoken in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands.

8:45 Then starting in the mid- 18th century,

8:47 Britain began introducing laws to weaken Highland culture

8:49 in an attempt to quell independentist rebellions in the region.

8:53 Among the laws were bans on Highland

8:55 traditions like clan tartans and bagpipe music.

8:57 And in 1872, Gaelic was banned from being taught in schools.

9:02 By the end of the 19th century,

9:04 it had largely been replaced by English in most of Scotland.

9:06 Nowadays only about 1% of Scots speak Gaelic.

9:10 Most are in the outer hebredes and the isle of sky

9:13 where about a third of the population speaks the language.

9:16 There's certain ignorance and almost stigma attached to being a Gaelic speaker.

9:21 You see comments in social media and they're

9:23 very much like oh it's a dead language.

9:25 Uh why are we giving money to something that no one speaks?

9:28 But it's not true.

9:30 I mean if people come here you can regularly go to the shops,

9:32 go to the pub and you'll have people speaking Gaelic to each other.

9:35 And this kind of attitude and persecution is definitely

9:38 a major reason of why we feel very strongly about independence.

9:47 So I've been a Gaelic singer from pretty much knee height.

9:51 My father is a a Gaelic singer

9:53 and my brother and my sister are both Gaelic singers.

9:56 So we've been always very involved

9:58 in Scottish traditional music and in Gaelic singing.

10:00 And can we hear some of it?

10:04 You knew we were going to ask you.

10:06 Yeah, I was waiting for that.

10:07 So, this song is called Welcome to the Island Sky.

10:12 It's I'll just sing I'll sing you a wee verse of it.

10:41 Oh, that was so beautiful.

10:44 It costs so little to put Gaelic on a road sign

10:48 or Gaelic on an ambulance or Gaelic on a on a police car.

10:52 People make an argument that it it puts them off

10:55 the road when they see signs in Gaelic and in English.

10:59 From bilingual road signs to the waving of the saltire or the Union Jack,

11:05 so many things in Scotland can be imbued with political significance.

11:08 Interpreted as signifiers of a unionist or separatist identity.

11:12 Perhaps nothing more so, however,

11:14 than the colors one wears when Glasgow's infamous football derby comes around.

11:19 Irish green for Celtic, royal blue for Rangers.

11:22 So Rangers and Celtic are two football clubs,

11:26 but for the people of Scotland, they're much much more than that.

11:31 They are your identity.

11:32 They are your values.

11:33 They are your beliefs.

11:34 When you go to Rangers, they are traditionally more pro- unionism, pro monarchy.

11:41 And then on the other hand,

11:43 you've got Celtic pro-independence and anti- monarchy.

11:46 On match days, for example, you would not you would be advised not

11:50 to walk down certain streets wearing certain colours.

11:53 Obviously, if you were to go to a pub,

11:56 you wouldn't have the pubs typically intermingling.

11:58 You would go to a Rangers pub or you would

12:01 go to a Celtic pub and it would be um distinct.

12:04 When you've got these two teams,

12:06 it doesn't just mean who do you support in terms

12:09 of who do you support today for the game, Rangers and Celtic.

12:13 Who do you support can then often mean who do you vote for?

12:16 What identity do you have?

12:18 What beliefs do you have?

12:19 Are you pro or anti-Unionism?

12:21 Old firms as are called are some

12:23 of the most like rambunctious famous days in Scotland.

12:31 And Celtic have done it.

12:34 Winning an Hybrook stadium.

12:37 Oh,[ __] If you want to drink after it, as long as we win.

12:43 Oh, well maybe no welcome in this this street.

12:45 But know this street at some point like five streets away,

12:49 when the pub's shut maybe down the road somewhere we could get a drink.

12:53 Like these two, some young fans seem

12:55 to be bridging across Scotland's football divide.

12:58 In fact, you might end up finding

13:00 some Ranger supporters where you least expect them.

13:03 I support Rangers.

13:04 You do?

13:05 Which is kind of at odds with the whole political...

13:08 That's so surprising.

13:10 I support Rangers.

13:11 Okay.

13:11 just not just not the politics.

13:13 My family are all Celtic fans, which makes it even stranger.

13:17 I try not to associate football too much with politics.

13:20 Hard to get away from in Scotland.

13:22 My full family are are very very staunch Rangers supporters,

13:26 and I feel like I never really um fell into that bracket.

13:30 Annie doesn't fall into the same bracket as her parents in many ways.

13:35 Crucially, she isn't a fan of the British monarchy.

13:38 So, this is a letter from the queen from when she was alive,

13:42 and I wrote to her um because I'd done a lot of fundraising when I was younger.

13:47 So, this was on my bedroom wall for at least 3 years, 4 years.

13:55 So, obviously, at one point, I valued these enough to put them on my wall.

14:00 As I sort of started educating myself on uh the monarchy,

14:03 I am against the monarchy.

14:05 I totally disagree with what it means and how

14:09 it came into power and how they've retained power.

14:12 So that's what these letters ended up representing to me

14:16 was um the development of my own beliefs in a way.

14:19 I then decided to take them down where they've

14:21 remained in a box in my attic ever since.

14:25 Another very important topic that Annie

14:27 and her parents disagree on is the European Union.

14:31 At the time of the Brexit referendum, both her mom and her dad voted leave.

14:36 I was 15 when it happened and we felt such a sense of loss.

14:42 This is where I did really relate with my youth because we

14:47 were like devastated as a whole um to leave the European Union.

14:51 We understood that this could have really

14:54 bad ramifications for Scotland and unfortunately it

14:57 did All of that sort of disintegrated

15:00 before our eyes and it's never been replaced.

15:03 There's a there's a gaping hole at the heart

15:06 of where the European Union should be within Scotland.

15:09 And I felt a sense of sadness that my mother

15:12 and father felt like that was the correct decision.

15:14 Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU.

15:18 Every single council area in Scotland voted to remain in the EU.

15:22 So essentially, we got taken out of the EU entirely

15:26 against our will because of what other countries wanted to do.

15:31 And that just seems grossly unfair.

15:34 I mean, one of the pledges of the the no campaign

15:38 at the time of the Scottish independence referendum was that by voting no,

15:42 we were ensuring a European Union membership and then

15:47 two years later that uh membership was uh removed.

15:51 Many people in Scotland share Ian's feelings.

15:56 While for decades, no to independence pulled consistently

15:58 30 to 40 percentage points higher than yes,

16:01 pro-independence sentiment increased substantially at the time

16:05 of the 2016 Brexit referendum and eventually surpassed the 50% benchmark

16:10 in 2020 when Brexit was definitively implemented.

16:13 Since then, yes and no have remained neck

16:15 and neck with the country split down the middle.

16:18 The most recent polls from February of 2026 suggest that 51%

16:23 of Scotland is in favor of independence and 49% against it.

16:27 Among 16 to 24 year olds, support rises to 59%.

16:32 I would 100% be keen to leave the union

16:35 if it meant rejoining the European Union, no questions asked.

16:39 But again, you need to be pragmatic and realistic.

16:43 And what currency would we have?

16:45 What borders would we have with England?

16:47 I mean, how could we legitimize leaving the stability that the union

16:53 provides us for no guarantees that we would be involved within the EU?

16:59 We couldn't have this glorious Scotland and the Scotland

17:02 that we pride ourselves on if we left the UK.

17:05 On May 7th, many voters will face these questions

17:08 as they head to the polls for the Scottish Parliamentary elections.

17:11 I will be voting Scottish Labor for the next general election.

17:17 Although that's not to say that I

17:19 agree with the current Labor government in Westminster.

17:21 I will be voting as I think I just

17:24 about always have in elections for the Scottish National Party.

17:28 I still very firmly believe they are our best

17:32 chance of gaining a peaceful route towards Scottish independence.

17:36 The SNP has long claimed that winning an absolute majority in the Scottish

17:40 Parliament would give it a mandate to call a second independence referendum,

17:44 but the UK Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Scotland

17:47 cannot hold one without the approval of the UK Parliament.

17:51 So for now, whether or not another independence referendum is

17:54 in the cards for Scotland remains a question with no answer.

17:58 If the S&P were to gain a majority,

18:01 I think it becomes almost impossible for the for the UK government

18:05 to continue to object to this will of the Scottish people essentially.