The Guardian: Scotland did not want to leave the EU. But we may want to leave the UK

My partner voted no in the independence referendum, like many on the left who could not bear to be aligned with nationalism of any kind. If, or rather when, a second independence referendum comes around she says she would now vote yes. There will be many more like her who, through gritted teeth and perhaps even horror, would make the previously unimaginable switch. Even JK Rowling, one of Scotland’s most high-profile unionists, has noted the inevitability of it all: “Scotland will seek independence now,” she tweeted in the hours after the EU referendum result. “Cameron’s legacy will be breaking up two unions. Neither needed to happen.”

However uncomfortable it is to respond to one deep and painful fracture by willing another, this is where we are now. As for me, I remain a Londoner, English, British, Indian and a European who has lived in Scotland for most of my adult life. And right now I’m not only proud to be here. I’m relieved.

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Politico: How David Cameron blew it

Less than a month before the historic EU referendum, the team assembled by Cameron to keep Britain in the European Union was worried about wavering Labour voters and frustrated by the opposition leader’s lukewarm support. Remain campaign operatives floated a plan to convince Corbyn to make a public gesture of cross-party unity by appearing in public with the prime minister. Polling showed this would be the “number one” play to reach Labour voters.

Senior staff from the campaign “begged” Corbyn to do a rally with the prime minister, according to a senior source who was close to the Remain campaign. Corbyn wanted nothing to do with the Tory leader, no matter what was at stake. Gordon Brown, the Labour prime minister whom Cameron vanquished in 2010, was sent to plead with Corbyn to change his mind. Corbyn wouldn’t. Senior figures in the Remain camp, who included Cameron’s trusted communications chief Craig Oliver and Jim Messina, President Obama’s campaign guru, were furious. [...]

Hardened by close-run contests in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and last year’s general election, the strategists running Stronger In decided to follow the playbook that worked in those campaigns, particularly the 2015 Conservative sweep, and focus mainly on economic security.

It failed spectacularly. The depth of public anger over the influx of workers from other EU countries, and more broadly the rejection of political and business elites, was more significant than they had anticipated.

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