The air is dry, barely cool, this mid-September is exceptionally mild in Edinburgh. The students converge again towards the University district, in the west of the old town, their big suitcases on their heels. It is still expected that the start of the academic year will resume “face-to-face” at the end of the month.
As elsewhere in the United Kingdom, the health crisis has already left its mark in the Scottish capital. August should have seen hundreds of thousands of tourists disembark for the country’s biggest festival – the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was cancelled. The Royal Mile, the medieval road that connects Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood’s royal residence, is deserted. Souvenir shops sell off tartan scarves, pipers play for an invisible audience.
However, Edinburgh now lives at a different pace than the rest of the country – than England, at least. In terms of health, the first wave of Covid-19 mowed 2,500 Scots, but was less brutal than in the South (more than 37,000 English victims). The infection is on the rise, but transmission rates remain lower. Politically, too, something has changed in recent months: Scotland has moved further away from “Westminster”, the British Parliament.
Six years after a failed referendum (55.3% of Scots voted to stay in the UK in 2014), the issue of independence has once again entered the debate. “We don’t talk about it all the time, but we do talk about it”, confirms Simon Girard, manager of an Ibis hotel in the old town, installed in Edinburgh for eleven years. “ People don’t spontaneously talk about it, we’re not in the middle of a referendum campaign, but it’s in the air ”, confirmed James Mitchell, Public Policy Specialist at the University of Edinburgh.
Since mid-spring, polls have put independence in the lead for the first time (with an average of 53% favorable opinions) and the Scottish National Party (SNP) is on the rise. Even his political opponents, Labor and Conservatives, predict a historic victory – perhaps an absolute majority – in the Scottish parliamentary elections in May 2021. Angus Robertson, 50, the former deputy head of the SNP, intends to run in the constituency of Edinburgh Center, a crucial seat, still in the hands of the Tories.
Reinforced independence cause
This seasoned politician is interested in “No to yes”, those who voted against independence in 2014, then changed their mind: “The main reason for their conversion is Brexit, of course [l’Ecosse a voté pour rester dans l’Union européenne à 62 % en 2016], and Boris Johnson. They also tell us that our Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been much better on Covid-19. “
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