United Kingdom falling apart at the seams

Although the pro-independence Scottish National Party fell one seat short of a majority in the Scottish parliamentary election on Thursday, the Green Party, which supports independence, also won eight seats in the election. That means the pro-independence parties still have a majority in the Scottish parliament and continue to dominate Scottish politics as they have over the past few years.

Notably, after the election, the SNP said they will call for another referendum on Scotland's independence. While UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson firmly opposes such a vote, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, said there is simply no democratic justification whatsoever for Boris Johnson or anyone else to seek to block the right of the people of Scotland to choose their own future.

Whether Johnson would seek to block any referendum through the courts remains to be seen as an independent Scotland would mean that the Conservative Party would face no opposition in England, as with the Labour and Liberal parties in disarray, the SNP has effectively been the only voice challenging Johnson's scandal-prone government.

With many Scottish voters feeling betrayed after the once-in-a-generation referendum in 2014, in which many of the 55 percent voters supporting Scotland staying in the United Kingdom believed that in doing so Scotland would continue to stay in the European Union, there is a strong possibility that a second referendum on Scotland's independence might indeed herald the break up of the United Kingdom.

If Scotland does become a fully independent country, it would apply to rejoin the EU and would likely adopt a more friendly stance toward China. After Brexit, the Johnson administration, desperate for a trade deal with the United States, has thrown its weight behind the China containment schemes of the US, irrespective of the negative influences on the UK's economic and trade cooperation with China, one of its most important overseas markets and sources of investment.

So, with Scotland looking East and England looking West, the economic difficulties of the UK, which look set to be lasting, are another wedge widening the divide between the two. Although, neither the SNP nor the Conservative Party is in a rush to have a showdown over the referendum. The centrifugal forces pulling the UK apart continue to grow stronger.