2045. The Lion Is Wasting Away

2026 was not very successful for China. After a number of laws for social support of the population, many companies, even some local ones, began to simply plan new enterprises in other countries and close old ones in China, since they even pay at the minimum limit of 700 (!)$ was wasteful. In China, labor was already not so cheap, and after the introduction of this stupid law, it became very difficult to maintain labor, so enterprises began to open in other countries with incredibly cheap labor. And even better if the country does not really monitor the environment.

The situation was aggravated by the energy crisis. 
Previously, the main suppliers to China were Qatar, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and primarily Russia. Moreover, Russia was the main exporter to China, selling resources to it for a song (Russia had no alternative to China and India because of sanctions). 

But by the end of 2026, the European Union, which was in an energy crisis, decided to "lift some of the sanctions" with Russia, explaining that Russia had finished the invasion, agreed on the border with Ukraine and in general now there is a new leadership in Russia (which was half-true. In Russia, United Russia also remained at the helm, and Putin simply faded into the background; surprisingly, the European Union in early 2026 condemned the new pro-Russian government of Ukraine, and by the end of 2026 lifted most of the sanctions against Russia. It's amazing how fickle politicians are sometimes.)

 As a result, energy sanctions against Russia were lifted, and the EU agreed to pay for energy resources even at a fairly high price (albeit lower than most other suppliers).
Also, as you remember, Russia has reduced the supply of energy resources to China, and at first this adventure was to its detriment. 

And sanctions were imposed on Saudi Arabia and Qatar, so supplies from them completely stopped. By the way, those companies that withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Kingdom, under pressure from the United States refused to supply oil to China.

 Things were even stranger with Iran. 

Iran has always been famous for its anti-Western rhetoric, so for China it was, although not the main, but a reliable supplier. But suddenly, in January 2027, Iran abruptly began to support Western policy

and also reduced supplies.

In addition, on January 28, the long-awaited oil pipeline from Iran to India was opened, which made it possible to almost completely compensate for the losses from the loss of the Chinese market. To make matters worse, the construction of a bold, ambitious and expensive project of Iran and Russia — a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf has been started.

By the way, this channel caused great indignation not only in China, but also in the United States, although soon the indignation stopped — you should not quarrel with two former enemies, especially those who have become the key to victory in the confrontation with China.

In 2023, Scotland announced a second independence referendum scheduled for 2024. 

The United Kingdom once again tried to recognize the referendum as "unconstitutional", but still conceded and agreed to organize the referendum. However, already in February 2024, the UK postponed the referendum to March 2027, Scotland could not challenge this.

On March 3, the first stage of the referendum on Scottish independence took place.

The Scots, as a sign of support for independence, left "#SinnAlba" on social networks. From February 20 to March 2, Facebook registered 2.1 million users from the UK using this hashtag (let's not forget that this number also includes residents of England, Wales and Northern Ireland); Twitter also registered more than 10 million tweets from around the world with SinnAlba.

The news about the referendum took the first line in the USA, Ireland, France, Russia and China. The Russians and Chinese supported the Scots in "breaking British imperialism", while the Irish congratulated their Celtic brothers.

— "Mark my words, soon we will become one with our North." — Ronald Kirby, Cork

— "When will the time of Catalonia come? " — Saif Karimi, Cairo

— "We need to leave this English swamp as soon as possible, before it's too late" — Jason McCain, Dundee

— "People, the Scots tried in 2014 and 2022, do you think they will be allowed now?" — Stewart Heath, Leicester

Before the referendum, they said that you can vote not only in person, but also online.

Already on the first day, the turnout was 77%, which was helped by online voting. The Scots staged all sorts of actions at the polling places. At one of the polling stations in Aberdeen, the Scots who supported independence decided to put dashes in chalk. Others hung national flags over their houses, folded their ballots with an accordion. Especially the radical ones suggested filling out incorrect ballots, since the British government "could underestimate the number of supporters of independence, but would gladly indicate the number of incorrect ballots," although the majority considered this nonsense.

On the night of March 3, many Scots began to complain about power outages. Humza Yousaf explained this by bad weather. In fact, in Scotland at this time terrible bad weather began — in many places it was raining cats and dogs. With all this, votes continued to appear. The Scottish government announced the votes of 800,000 unregistered voters.

— "Apparently, Sunak from fear will soon grant the right to vote to the British," former Prime Minister Alex Salmond reacted.

Meanwhile, some residents of Scotland began to complain about incoming messages about overdue loans or criminal charges, but soon many of these complaints on social networks were deleted. 

In addition, the origin of unknown voters was clarified. As stated by the special services, the voters turned out to be Russian hackers.

Some voters began to notice strangers at polling stations. One of the people told about his observations on Facebook. 

"Some incomprehensible people are standing in queues, speaking broken English. They don't look much like the Scottish." In replies, he will receive advice on treatment for paranoia and suggestions to look at the Wikipedia page called "Migrants" and think if he knows every resident of Glasgow by name.

Finally, after a long string of all sorts of information stuffing, the results of the referendum were announced on the morning of March 5.

With a turnout of 88%, 43% voted for independence, 51% voted against, and 6% of the votes were incorrect.

- "This is our victory. The United Kingdom has once again shown that it is not called united for nothing," Yousaf Hamza said in his speech.

The Scots were angry. Large—scale rallies were held in the largest cities of Scotland: 25-50,000 demonstrated in Edinburgh, 30-40,000 in Aberdeen, 45-60,000 in Dundee and 150,000-300,000 in Glasgow.

The British media tried to interview pro-government people, but during the search they were sprayed with blue and white paint and threw things into the cameras. Some people took away microphones:

— SUNAK! IF YOU GO TO SCOTLAND, WE'LL HANG YOU RIGHT HERE (points to the spire of the government building)

— I am a Russian hacker, I want an independent Scotland!

— Caoraich sasannach gòrach, ged a tha Thu A-nis Hindus bho Oxford grànda, cha chuir thu stad air an t-strì AIRSON SAORSA!

There were 14 such cases in total.

On March 8, the Scottish Electoral Commission recognized the results of the referendum as fictitious and announced a revision of the results. Yusaf Hamza forbade this, but the parliament supported this decision.

— "Let them read out the name of each person who voted, along with his city of origin and date of birth," said Alex Salmond.

As a result, the election commission said that the real results will be announced on March 9.
According to the current results of the referendum, the turnout was 86%, since about 2% were fictitious voters from England.

At the same time, it turned out that most of those who voted online were not counted in the database. The government explained this by the work of the anti-virus database services, which considered these voices to be hacking of the system. 

Among those who voted for independence, 66% spoke out, 33% opposed, and only 1% turned out to be invalid, taking into account "intentionally invalid" ballots. The Electoral Commission announced the beginning of the process of Scottish independence. The parliament announced the beginning of a divorce with England.

Humza Yousaf commented on this as follows:

— "The traitors of our country are trying to adjust the results for themselves in order to achieve what they want. We must not allow Scotland to be handed over to the separatists."

The same evening, the Scottish Parliament dismissed Yusuf Hamza, and in an unsightly way — the parliamentarians entered the office and took Hamza out of the building. On the street, angry people were waiting for him, shouting insults to the former prime minister. We must pay tribute, no one gave Hamza offense.

After the Parliament approved the independence plan:
1. Scots leave all chambers of the British Parliament;

2. New parliamentary and Prime Minister elections are scheduled for March 16.

3. The position of the Prime Minister after the new one takes office is renamed the Minister-President. 
4. The creation of separate Scottish Civil Services begins. 
5. A Constitutional Commission is established to draft the Constitution of Scotland. 

6. Republic of Scotland declares independence on January 23, 2028.

7. The Pound Sterling will be replaced by Pound Scots in Scotland on January 1, 2028, from January 23, Pound Scots will become the only legal currency.

8. From January 23, all UK citizens residing in Scotland become citizens of the Republic of Scotland, from the date approved later, it will be possible to obtain citizenship and a passport on paper.

9. The British military, except for the special services of Scotland, leave the territory of Scotland by April 1 without exception.

10. After the separation of Scotland and the breakup of the union, Great Britain will be allowed to keep the name "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", as well as the Union Jack with the old coat of arms as state symbols.

The right-wingers challenged the decision to declare independence in as many as 10 months, explaining that "in such a long time, the UK will have time to rebuild the secession process for itself and put its elite at the head of Scotland, making it its next hidden colony." The parliamentarians agreed with the point of view, but still noticed that it would not work quickly and at the same time without shocks, so the parliament agreed on a "slow, but consistent and tough divorce with England."

On March 15, Scotland established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and submitted an application to the UN, however, as the "Country of Scotland". When asked if Scotland plans to join the EU, the Scottish Government answered unequivocally: "Scotland will pursue an independent policy. EU membership is not in the interests of Scotland, but active cooperation and interaction"

I would like to note that the United Kingdom recognized only the initial results of the referendum, and, therefore, the preservation of Scotland as part of the UK. But who recognized the referendum?

Ireland was the first to congratulate the people of Scotland. After the congratulations came from the USA and Japan. On March 10, Russia, Iran and Canada, the first Commonwealth country to do so, congratulated the results of the referendum.  In total , on March 11 , the following countries congratulated Scotland on independence:

In any case, the process of gaining Scottish independence has already begun, and there is no stopping it, especially since HE agreed to consider Scotland's application at the autumn meeting. If it is adopted, Scotland will become the first non-sovereign UN member state in a long time.

If you have read this, then I am waiting for suggestions to improve the quality of these blogs. For example, whether to make them less stretched and include more events in one block, or, conversely, to make them more detailed (although excessive detail is almost always not good). There will be a lot of blogs ahead, and if the referendum was stretched so tight, then what will happen to the fighting or major economic projects? It's still vague.

Also can someone help with Scotland and its culture?