Alasdair Soussi

Scots vot­ed to stay in the union nine years ago, but a new cul­tur­al con­flict with Lon­don has restart­ed a heat­ed de­bate.

Pro-in­de­pen­dence ac­tivists torn over pos­si­bil­i­ty that cri­sis-hit British prime min­is­ter may be forced to re­sign.

Glas­gow due to host UN’s cli­mate con­fer­ence seen by many as the last chance to avert a glob­al en­vi­ron­men­tal cat­a­stro­phe.

Some see event as a chance to stake a claim for state­hood, but the UK gov’t is re­port­ed­ly try­ing to side­line Ed­in­burgh.

The Scot­tish Na­tion­al Par­ty took 64 of the 129 par­lia­men­tary seats up for grabs, just one short of an over­all ma­jor­i­ty.

A ma­jor­i­ty vic­to­ry would hand Scot­tish na­tion­al­ists the im­pe­tus to push hard­er for a sec­ond in­de­pen­dence ref­er­en­dum.

Roza Sal­ih, who ar­rived in Scot­land at 12, says she is com­mit­ted to fight­ing for hu­man rights and sov­er­eign­ty.

For­mer Scot­tish first min­is­ter to launch new po­lit­i­cal par­ty ahead of up­com­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions.

As the move­ment for Scot­tish in­de­pen­dence grows, union­ists face a tough chal­lenge.

Cen­turies of union be­tween Scot­land and Eng­land are strain­ing amid the UK’s exit from the EU and the COVID pan­dem­ic.