CONTROLE CONTINU – FINAL EXAM – L1

'Pivot point' for Scotland as Brexit boosts independence bid

Sat 19 Oct 2019 Libby Brooks - Scotland correspondent – THE GUARDIAN

1 That the union is under greater stress than at any time in its 300-year history is something that
2 everyone from Scotland’s first minister to former Conservative and Labour prime ministers
3 and Whitehall thinktanks agree upon. Nicola Sturgeon told delegates at the SNP conference in
4 Aberdeen on Tuesday that successive Westminster governments had “shattered the case for
5 the union” and that she would demand within weeks the legal powers to hold a second
6 independence referendum in 2020.

7 The following day the Institute for Government published a report stating that a no-deal
8 Brexit would leave the union at breaking point and that it would be “unsustainable and
9 counterproductive” for the UK government to block another referendum.

10 John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have all warned in recent weeks that the
11 government’s handling of Brexit is putting the union in peril. Polling on the eve of the SNP
12 conference showed that support in Scotland for independence had risen to 50%. A higher
13 proportion believed Scotland would be better off economically as an independent country
14 within the EU than if it remained in the UK after Brexit.

15 “Nothing is inevitable, but this is by far the closest we have come historically to the breakup
16 of the union,” says Scotland’s foremost historian, Tom Devine. “I have always thought that if
17 [the union] was eventually destroyed, the major battering ram would come from south of the
18 border. A particular strain of English nationalism has now infected the Conservative party,
19 and one wonders to what extent the majority in England will be concerned with the loss of
20 Scotland – and indeed Northern Ireland.” […]

21 Devine suggests there should be some focus on what would happen after a vote in favour of
22 independence. The maintenance of a social union with England, as well as what form of trade
23 barrier would exist with Scotland’s biggest market, would depend of the goodwill of the
24 governing party in London at the time.

25 Furthermore, there would be a pressing need for reconciliation: “The governing party in
26 Scotland has a moral as well as political duty to assuage the doubts of those who will still vote
27 against independence in the next referendum. This is a small country and currently split
28 50/50. It’s difficult to see with such a profound change how those wounds can be healed in
29 the short-term.”
QUESTIONS ON DOCUMENT 1 (16 pts)

1. Write an introduction to the document including all the elements that should be
mentioned (nature of the document, date etc.) (5 pts)

This document comes from the Guardian, a newspaper. This article has been written
by Libby Brook a Guardian’s Scotland correspondent on Saturday 19 of October 2019.
It relates the Scotland’s fight for an independence of the country and the way to get it.
As mentioned in this article the SNP, a Scottish national party think that a referendum
should be hailed to progress step by step to an entire autonomy.

2. Develop on the “300-year history” (l.1) mentioned by the author: who is part of
the union? When did they enter it? (3 pts)

“300-year history” refer to a treaty signed on 1707 between Scotland and United Kingdom.
One king for all, one parliament in Westminster introduced by Scottish MPs.

3. Who is Nicola Sturgeon? (1 pt)

Nicola Sturgeon is a headmaster of the SNP. (Scottish National Party.)

4. “She would demand a second independence referendum in 2020”: when did the
first referendum take place and with what results? (2 pts)

In 2014 a referendum was organized. 55% Scottish people are opposed to leave
United Kingdom.

5. “Brexit” (l.8): what do you know about the Brexit vote? When did it happen? (2
pts)

‘Brexit’ is a willing of some people wanted to get off the EU. In United Kingdom it expressed
by referendums. In England 52% in 2016 wanted to leave EU. In Scotland a first one
happened in 2014, then in 2016, 62% of Scottish people wanted to stay.

6. “John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown” (l. 10): what do you know about those
people? (2 pts)

John Major was the leader of the conservative party under the Thatcher’s government and
prime minister.

Tony Blair was the leader of the labour party and prime minister.

Gordon Brown was also a prime minister and a leader of the labour party too.

7. What are the challenges that Scottish independence would entail for both the UK
and Scotland? (2 pts)

Challengers are economic, the revenue’s petrol and the currency (they are both wanted to
keep the pound sterling.) For the moment.