Hello, and happy Friday!
This correspondence comes to you after a whirlwind week that started in Manchester for Britain’s Conservative Party conference (more on that below) and ended with the publication of my profile of Humza Yousaf, the first Muslim politician ever elected to lead a Western democracy and Scotland’s first non-white and youngest leader.
When I traveled to Edinburgh back in August to meet with Yousaf for what was his first major interview with foreign media, we discussed everything from the historic nature of his leadership to the turbulent few months that have come to define his early tenure. Since taking power in March, his ruling Scottish National Party has been engulfed in a political firestorm—one driven by a police investigation into its finances, internal strife, and a worsening position in the polls. In a by-election held yesterday—Yousaf’s first electoral test as SNP leader—the party lost its seat to the ascendant Labour Party by a considerable margin.
As the U.K.’s next general election looms, Yousaf told me he’ll be doubling down on the cause of Scottish independence—not just as a means of bringing his fractious party together, but as a solution to what he sees as the biggest issues facing Scottish voters today, among them a cost-of-living crisis and ailing public services.
“Being attached to this unequal union,” he says, “is what’s holding us back.” Read the full profile—which is also my first cover story for TIME—here or in print
What I’ve written
Alongside the cover story, I wrote a separate piece on the five key takeaways from my conversation with Humza Yousaf.
1. There is no clear path toward achieving Scottish independence
Since the U.K. Supreme Court ruled last year that Scotland does not have the power to hold an independence referendum without the consent of the British government, the path forward for the independence movement appears to have hit a dead end. Westminster is adamant that the 2014 referendum, which saw 55% of Scots vote against independence, was the final word on the matter. The SNP argues that the scale of change in the U.K. since then, most notably its decision to leave the E.U., entitles Scots to another vote.
Before quitting office in February, Sturgeon briefly floated the idea of treating the next U.K. general election as a “de facto referendum” on independence—a position that many within the party, including Yousaf, distanced themselves from. During our conversation, Yousaf said getting the U.K. government to agree to sanction a referendum would always be the “preferred option,” but that absent such cooperation, the SNP should instead focus on building a consistent majority for independence that Westminster cannot possibly ignore. This after all was how Scotland secured its own Parliament following the 1997 devolution referendum, in which Scots voted overwhelmingly for its creation. And while Yousaf concedes that Scottish independence doesn’t claim the support of a consistent majority of Scots, he believes it’s only a matter of time before it does.
“If we can demonstrate that independence has a consistent majority—not 52% one day, 48% the other day,” says Yousaf, “then it’ll be impossible for the U.K. government to continue and continue and continue to deny.” SNP members will get their chance to vote on the party’s independence strategy when they meet for their annual conference later this month in Aberdeen. Read the rest of the takeaways here
I traveled up to Manchester on Monday for what is likely to be the U.K. Conservative Party’s last major gathering before the general election expected next year. Although the party is down in the polls, the conference made it clear that the Conservatives are not going down without a fight—with each other, that is.
Although Sunak is both Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Conservative Party, he was hardly the star of its conference. Perhaps because so many of his Conservative colleagues were jostling for the spotlight in an apparent attempt to position themselves as party leaders-in-waiting. In the days leading up to the conference, Suella Braverman, Britain’s home secretary responsible for immigration, police, and other internal matters, delivered an incendiary speech on the “existential challenge” of uncontrolled immigration that many observers regarded as an unambiguous leadership pitch. (Braverman, who is herself the daughter of Indian migrants from Kenya and Mauritius, told the conference that “the wind of change” that carried her parents to Britain in the 1960s “was a mere gust compared [with] the hurricane that is coming.”) Even Sunak’s predecessor appeared to be staging her own soft bid to reclaim the Conservative leadership during an event billed as the “Great British Growth” rally, lines for which snaked around the corridors and up the stairs of Manchester’s Midland Hotel. The interest in Truss’s speech was remarkable considering her economic program had only a year ago plunged the U.K. to the brink of recession. Another Conservative lawmaker who spoke at the rally claimed that Truss’s pro-growth wing claims the support of 60 lawmakers, or roughly the same size as Sunak’s majority in Parliament—enough to potentially block the passage of the government’s upcoming autumn statement when it’s presented to Parliament next month. “It’s a rebellion,” one conference attendee waiting in the line mused. “Everyone loves a rebellion!” Read the full dispatch here
Plus:
What I’ve read
This essay on losing, and reclaiming, citizenship [London Review of Books]
Trying to gain citizenship of another country can start off as one thing – wanting to avoid the inconvenience of losing EU free movement rights, say – and end up as something completely different. The process is intensely personal. Assembling the messy details of a life into a narrative that fits the requirements of state bureaucracy distorts the meaning of particular events – a brief marriage between a couple who didn’t get on, for instance. Bureaucratic complications are an inherent part of the process, because the bureaucracy itself is political. Governments are constantly drawing and redrawing the lines of belonging, to express ideas about a nation’s identity. The way a country decides to recognise citizenship by descent can be particularly revealing, because it tells you how these ideas have developed over time.
This non-lunch with the FT, feat. Anne Wintour [The Financial Times]
Wintour arrives, smiling, and informs me that she doesn’t want to eat. “I find it quite difficult to eat and to be interviewed, so I think I’ll wait, but please order something.”
I wonder if I should explain the format of a Lunch with the FT, but decide against it. I order the first item I see on the vegan menu: a gnocchi dish. A waiter pours from a bottle of San Pellegrino into Wintour’s long-stemmed glass.
This essay on why the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s budding romance is bound to end badly (The Atlantic)
The real variable here isn’t necessarily Kelce or Swift. It’s the Chiefs, who are looking a bit wobbly so far this season, their 41–10 drubbing of the dreadful Bears notwithstanding. An NFL team hasn’t won back-to-back Super Bowls in nearly two decades, and there’s a reason for that: Football is violent, exhausting, and unpredictable. Guys get injured, key players move to other teams, and everyone who stays is a year older and 20 percent less hungry. That includes Kelce, now 33, a two-time Super Bowl winner and future first-ballot Hall of Famer who’s running out of prizes to play for. The Chiefs are going to struggle at times this season, and when they do, illogical or not, fans will blame the new variable—in this case, the pop star. It’s a tale as old as Yoko Ono.
What I’m thinking about
On Sunday, I’ll be running the Royal Parks Half Marathon in support of the Rory Peck Trust—a vital charity supporting freelance journalists worldwide. We’ve raised £618 so far, which is huge! A big, big thank you to everyone who donated.
If you’re feeling generous and want to send over a pound or two before race day, you can do so here.
Until next time,
Yasmeen