Scots ask: What can Brown do for me?

AFP

I’ll bet that most people don’t know that Scotland is in the midst of a fierce debate over whether to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent country. Tomorrow, Scots will head to the polls to elect members of the Scottish parliament. The Scottish Nationalist Party, which—as you might be able to guess from its name—favors independence, is expected to do well. The SNP vows to hold a nationwide referendum to decide Scotland’s fate if it wins a majority, as seems increasingly likely.

Enter Gordon Brown, the Scotsman who happens to be slated to become the next prime minister of the UK when Tony Blair steps down later this month. Brown frames the Scottish parliamentary elections as “a big choice … between those who want to break up Britain and those who want to build up Scotland.” His not-so-subtle message: Support the Labor Party instead. But Labor’s image has taken a beating as Britons have become ever more unhappy with the war in Iraq. And thus, in a strange twist of fate, the invasion and occupation of Iraq could conceivably lead to the breakup of … the United Kingdom.