For two and a half years most people in Britain ignored the brewing fight between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond. No longer. The civil war among Scottish nationalist factions has been justly described as Shakespearean. Scotland’s first minister is vying to save her career while her predecessor and long-time mentor seeks to salvage what’s left of his reputation and legacy.
With important elections coming in May, the battle of Salmond versus Sturgeon threatens to undermine the Scottish independence movement to which both politicians have dedicated their careers, and just as support for that cause had genuine momentum. That’s music to Boris Johnson’s ears, even if the U.K. prime minister doesn’t have a dog in this fight.
Whatever else he accomplishes, history would not be kind to a leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party who presided over the dissolution of the United Kingdom.