2023-07-06 14:35:53
Will Orkney stay in the UK? This is the whole point of the motion adopted this Tuesday, July 4 by the local council of the Scottish archipelago. Controlled by the King of Norway until 1472, these 67 islands – of which only 16 are inhabited – located in the north of Scotland were ceded as a dowry during the marriage between James III of Scotland and Princess Margaret of Denmark and Norway.
Attached since to Scotland, its 22,000 inhabitants consider themselves for a long time neglected by London and Edinburgh. At the heart of their claim: the financial aid on which these small islands are very dependent. According to James Stockan, chairman of the local council, Orkney receives less money per capita than the neighboring Shetland Islands or other Scottish coastal islands.
Calling attention to Orkney
Local officials in the archipelago have therefore voted in favor of a motion to change their legal status within the United Kingdom. For a time vaguely mentioned, the connection to Norway was immediately ruled out by London and denied by James Stockan. On the other hand, the evolution towards a greater degree of autonomy with regard to the Crown on the model of the Isles of Man, Guernsey or Jersey is one of the avenues studied.
An unlikely hypothesis, however, according to Gilles Leydier, professor of British civilization, specialist in the Scottish question at the University of Toulon, who sees it more as a political maneuver than a real empowerment project. “There is no asserted will of the inhabitants, nor local consensus on the subject, it is a way of drawing attention to Orkney to obtain more financial aid. »
The SNP in turmoil
A movement that comes as the Scottish Independence Party (SNP) is going through one of the most serious crises in its history. The arrest of former nationalist Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon last June – she has since been released – as part of an investigation into the finances of her party, the Scottish National Party, has continued to weaken the party in stalled for months.
A crisis which is explained above all, according to Gilles Leydier, by the impasse on the question of the referendum. Last November, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government had no power to stage a new vote on the nation’s independence and must have permission from London. “It has killed the prospects for independence, there are no more concrete outlets”, says the expert.
Moreover, Nicola Sturgeon’s successor and party leader, Humza Yousaf, does not benefit from the same aura. Narrowly elected – 52% of the votes of the militants –, “He is not as charismatic or unifying as Nicola Sturgeon”, continues the university.
However, the party’s difficulties do not seem to have a direct influence on the opinion of the separatists. According to the latest polls, 48% of Scots would vote to leave the UK in the event of a referendum.
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