Scotland elected Humza Yousaf SNP leader on Monday. In doing so, it said to England, I’ll see your Indian Sunak and raise our Pakistani Yousaf – never mind your Khan.
Granted, Brexit has relegated British politics almost irrelevant on the world stage. As such, it has rendered Scottish politics even more so.
Scotland elects Humza Yousaf
Still, the election of 37-year-old Yousaf is noteworthy. He is now the first Muslim to lead a country in Western Europe. Yousaf is the son of Pakistani immigrants.
Humza Yousaf has been elected to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scotland’s next first minister. He was widely seen as being the preferred candidate of the SNP establishment – including Ms Sturgeon herself.
The health secretary was endorsed by far more MSPs and MPs than his two rivals, with Deputy First Minister John Swinney predicting that Mr Yousaf would ‘complete our journey to independence’.
(BBC News, March 28, 2023)
Except that Rishi Sunak stole his thunder. Because Tory MPs elected this son of Indian immigrants as the first Hindu to lead the UK last October. Then again, it’s arguable that Sadiq Khan stole Sunak’s thunder. Londoners elected this son of Pakistani immigrants as the first Muslim mayor in 2016.
Yousaf vs. Sunak over Scottish independence
Frankly, only one issue makes Scotland relevant to most Englishmen. And that is its relentless push to break up the United Kingdom and become independent.
Yousaf has banked his leadership on winning independence. But it’s bound to go bankrupt. That’s because Sunak has said over my dead body. He has ruled out even granting Yousaf a chance to hold an independence referendum.
The irony, though, is that these two leaders are now fighting over the breakup of the UK. After all, they are both of immigrant descent. So you’d think this would make both amenable to Scotland becoming independent. After all, that would make the UK less imperial.
Yousaf wears his immigrant values of self-sufficiency and independence on his sleeve. In contrast, Sunak embraces those of his aristocratic betters. Indeed, Sunak does so much that he seems to think he’s white.
Mind you, Scottish and English leaders have been trying to settle issues related to Scottish independence for 600 years. The leaders of Yousaf and Sunak’s mother countries, Pakistan and India, can relate. After all, they’ve been trying to settle issues related to Partition for 75 years. So…