What Boris Johnson's Victory Means for Scottish Independence

Every time the Tories win an election, I can't help but feel bitter towards England.

Scotland – where I'm from – doesn't vote Conservative, neither does Wales. Yet both countries are stuck with the Tories. Then again, I live in England and have done for most of my adult life. As tempting as is to denounce it as a nation of bootlickers and racists (with a degree of accuracy), there's much I love about it. There are good people in England – people who don't deserve to suffer under austerity and whatever else Boris' majority government decides to inflict on the country.

How this Tory victory will affect Scotland's attitude towards the union is yet to be seen. Will more people on the left want to leave? Or might the result only strengthen their resolve to stay and fight alongside their comrades below the border? I spoke to a number of young people involved in Scottish politics to try to assess the state of Scottish nationalism today, and the challenges facing a country that is just as dominated by a single party as England.

As that viral video of Johnson being viciously booed on his first visit to Scotland as Prime Minister suggests, he's widely loathed north of the border – even by the standards of a Tory politician. A Johnson majority might be bad for the SNP in the short-term – he has categorically ruled out a second indy ref, and will continue the Tory campaign of austerity – but it may well end up working to the party's advantage. Yet another Conservative victory will confirm the perception – which many Scottish people have – that being in the union dooms Scotland to perpetual Tory rule, making the case for leaving more compelling than ever.

As sad as the English left might be to see Scotland go, lots of people would cheer us on – both to wipe the smirk off Johnson's face, and in a "wounded soldier in a war film selflessly begging his unit to go ahead and save themselves" kind of way. It would be embarrassing for Johnson to be the Prime Minister responsible for losing Scotland, which is a decent argument in itself. I'd vote yes out of sheer spite.

On the flip-side, many Scottish leftists place much importance on cross-country solidarity, and might feel guilty about abandoning the rest of the UK. This is totally valid when you consider that the problems facing, say, Liverpool or Newcastle are very similar to those facing Glasgow or Dundee. But we've seen time and time again that Scotland simply doesn't have enough seats to significantly influence the outcome of Westminster elections. Scotland can save itself, maybe, but it can't save England. I wish this wasn’t the case.

"It looks like the British political system is broke and nothing is likely to fix it, as far as a lot of Scots are concerned," says Professor Richard Finlay, a lecturer at Strathclyde University who has authored a number of books on modern Scottish history. "There is also a demographic factor at work. Over 75 percent of under-35s support independence, whereas it is the over-65s that are keeping the Union going – for the moment."

So maybe independence is inevitable. But given the collapse of Scottish Labour and the continued dominance of the SNP, an independent Scotland might not offer such an easy way out from austerity. For many nationalists in Scotland, independence is – and always has been – a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. As such, lots of people have grown disillusioned with the SNP and the austerity measures they've implemented over the last decade. The party's critics claim these measures are ideologically-driven, as evinced by the fact the party has failed to properly raise the (limited) tax-raising powers it has.

Take Daniel, 26, who campaigned for "Yes" in the 2014 referendum but has found himself, in the last few years, being increasingly drawn to Labour. "The SNP have sacrificed any radical intent in pursuit of a New Labour-esque managerial centrism that's purely about getting 50+1, to the detriment of any sort of emancipatory politics," he says.

When I speak to Giancarlo Bell, a left-wing member of Scottish Labour, he makes a similar point. "I don't think Corbynism has made the independence movement redundant," he says, "but I do think more and more people are realising: if we're going to create an independent Scotland where we've still got huge corporations exploiting workers, where people are still dying 'cause it's so cold outside and they don't have a roof over their head, then what's the point?"

In response, SNP supporters argue the party's hands are tied by Westminster, and that it's done the best it can with a budget slashed beyond its control. "If we had all tax raising powers devolved to Scotland, we'd be able to do more radical things in terms of spending," says Finlay McFarlane, exec for Leith SNP and vice convenor of the party's LGBT group. "But there's a limit to our budget, so what are we supposed to do?"

The answer could lie somewhere in the middle. The SNP certainly has its centrist tendencies, but it seems unlikely the party would pursue austerity measures to anywhere near the same extent were its budget not controlled by Westminster.

Scotland is in an interesting position at the moment: in England, there's only one party that propery caters to you if you're on the left, while Scottish leftists have two routes they can follow. Neither Labour nor the SNP is perfect, but there are genuinely progressive people on either side, many of whom don't fundamentally disagree with each other on either social or economic issues. It's the intersection of class and constitutional politics which presents the greatest difficulty. "All of Scotland's politics is based on constitution at the moment, whether that's EU or independence, and Labour have got it completely wrong on both fronts," argues Finlay.

If you look at Labour's collapse in support, it's difficult to disagree. Even Giancarlo recognises there's something in it: "Both the SNP and Scottish Labour are blinkered in terms of how they think about things. The SNP have no class analysis. They don't get the trade union movement, they've not really talked about tackling structural inequality. Whereas, on the other side, Scottish Labour are scared of talking about constitutional politics, and they don't want to get on board with the fact that a lot of the left in Scotland want to take a hammer to the British state. If you look at what's making people suffer in Scotland, is it class politics or is the British state? Probably a bit of both."

If Labour is going to be anything other than a spent force in Scottish politics, it will need to grapple with the constitutional questions and soften its unionist stance (its announcement this week that it will not support a second referendum makes such a transition seem unlikely). "Now more than ever, the independence movement needs proponents on the left to hold the SNP to account," says Giancarlo, "and Scottish Labour could be the perfect vehicle for imagining independence in a way that benefits people more than it does private enterprise."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many members of the SNP – including Finlay – would welcome Labour rejecting unionism. But whatever position Scottish Labour takes, it's clear that if an independent Scotland is to deliver the fairer society that the best of both sides want, it can't be a one-party state.

@fudwedding