Following a 69-to-59 vote Tuesday, the Scottish parliament is seeking permission from Westminster to hold a second referendum on becoming an independent country. And it's all because of Brexit.As debate raged among Scottish politicians last week over plans for a second referendum on the country's independence, the mood among the excited nationalists gathered outside the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood turned a bit Braveheart. "For Alba!" one man roared, using the Gaelic name for Scotland, as another waved a giant Scottish flag before the imposing backdrop of Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh's landmark peak. The only thing missing was the warpaint.For nationalists like Fin Kenny, the man waving the Saltire, Scotland's independence from the Conservative-dominated British parliament in Westminster – a remote, foreign government more than 500 kilometers away – is long overdue."It has been for 300 years," the 58-year-old told VICE News. "We're being run by a country that doesn't give a damn. They take and take, and just give us pocket money in return."Only three years after a bitter and divisive campaign which saw Scotland vote by 55 percent to 45 percent to remain part of the United Kingdom, these outsized expressions of nationalism are again in vogue around Holyrood.While the U.K. as a whole voted last year to leave the E.U., Scotland – one of the U.K.'s four constituent countries – voted 62 percent in favor of remaining in. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, head of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), has argued that taking Scotland out of Europe against its wishes will create a "democratic deficit." In light of what she says is Westminster's refusal to budge on negotiating any sort of differentiated deal allowing Scotland to retain a form of partial E.U. membership, she wants another independence referendum to be held by spring 2019 – before Britain is likely to leave the U.K.Finish this story on VICE NEWS
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