The United Kingdom May Be Stumbling Toward a Disastrous Breakup
Polls suggest three of the four nations that make up the UK will be ruled by separatist parties dedicated to the breakup of the union.
The breakup of the union of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The process has already begun.
Sinn Fein, political wing of the now defunct Irish Republican Army, has been the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2022.
In elections this week, the Scottish National Party is looking to extend its majority in the country’s devolved parliament and
Plaid Cymru is hoping to snatch Wales from the UK’s ruling Labour Party.
Both may see a mandate to begin the process of departure. But it’s not at all clear this is what voters want.
On recent visits to big cities in each of the four UK nations I encountered people who wanted to administer a kicking to the ruling establishment, not to the union itself.
While support for separatism in Scotland and Wales hasn’t shifted much in recent years, what has changed is the collapse in Labour’s popularity across the UK since its landslide victory in the 2024 general election.
It has been dominant in Wales for generations and had hoped to recapture the Scottish assembly from a scandal-plagued SNP.
Instead it’s braced for a mauling in its traditional heartlands, including Scotland and Wales.
Rosa Prince Bloomberg May 6, 2026
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