Just a week has passed since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union (EU) and Scotland has wasted no time or effort in telling the EU that it wants to remain a part of the bloc. But analysts say that Scotland's path back towards the EU won't be quick or easy.
In the referendum on EU membership last Thursday, a majority in England voted to leave the EU but a majority in Scotland voted to remain. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was quick to leap on the result, announcing that the will of the Scottish people was to stay in the EU and in order to do so, a second independence referendum was now firmly "on the table."
The result sent a shockwave through the British political establishment because it signaled that not only had the U.K. voted to leave the EU but that its own identity as a single entity was now threatened.
Analysts now believe that at least a partial break-up of the U.K. is a distinct possibility – predicting another independence vote in 2019 around the time the U.K.'s process of withdrawal from the EU could be completed -- and that if Scotland becomes independent, it will apply to re-join the EU.