Stirling - 1 September 2019
1. Various of Wallace Monument in Stirling:
2. Actors in front of monument re-enacting events around the Battle of Stirling Bridge, which was led by William Wallace
3. Visitors watching
4. Gilchrist Muir, acting as William Wallace, UPSOUND (English) "I did not come here to talk or be bought. I came here to win back my country's freedom for its people."
5. Wide of actors and visitors
Edinburgh - 1 September 2019
6. Actor Gilchrist Muir sitting at Maggie Dickson's pub in town centre
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilchrist Muir, actor:
(++The National Wallace Monument is a politically neutral charity that takes no stance on Scottish independence - Muir's views do not represent the charity's views++)
"I feel like I'm, it's like I am a passenger in a car that's out of control and the driver's left and you are just, you have no say over where the car is going. So, that is what it feels like right now. The parliament has been hijacked. We have no say. Scotland has no voice; it hasn't had for quite some time."
Stirling - 1 September 2019
8. Wide of old Stirling Bridge over which the Battle of Stirling was fought, with Wallace Monument in the background
9. Various of plaque commemorating Battle of Stirling
10. Wide tilt down to Chris Deerin standing on Forthside Footbridge
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Deerin, journalist, political commentator and director of the Reform Scotland think tank:
"If Scotland is independent in 2025 or 2030, I think Brexit will pretty obviously be the main reason for that. It will give momentum to the cause, it has exposed all sorts of problems with the union, it has set Scotland against England and Westminster seems very distant from Scotland at the moment."
12. Wide of old Stirling Bridge over which the Battle of Stirling was fought, with Wallace Monument in the background
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Deerin, journalist, political commentator and director of the Reform Scotland think tank:
"You know, my case (at time of first independence referendum) was very much that the role of Britain in the world was an important one. And I think by taking Scotland out of the United Kingdom, what is left is inevitably diminished, both geographically, economically, perhaps morally a bit as well. And it didn't seem like a good time for that to happen, but since then, Britain has decided to leave the EU, Donald Trump has gone into power in America, we have all sorts of things happening on the European continent - populists on the rise - and I think it just sort of... everything is changing. And I think we should all be looking at some of the received wisdom and perhaps some of our own accepted viewpoints and just asking whether those are still the right views to have. As an individual, I am certainly more open-minded to the idea of an independent Scotland than I was before."
Callander - 1 September 2019
14 Various of exterior of McQueen Gin Distillery
15. Various Dale McQueen, owner of distillery, pouring a sample of gin, drinking
16. Wide of the Saltire, Scotland's flag, on wall at distillery
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Dale McQueen, owner McQueen Gin Distillery:
"Scotland didn't vote for Brexit and so, against the will of the Scottish people, we are being forced out of Europe. So we are being seen in action not to have any democratic voice. So we are voting for something that we are not getting."
18. Photograph against distillery shop wall of McQueen and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon at opening of distillery
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Dale McQueen, owner McQueen Gin Distillery:
"I'm certainly of the opinion that Scotland could be a much more prosperous country living on its own economy, making its own rules."
Glasgow - 31 August 2019
20. Various of "Stop the Coup" protest in George Square, held in response to prorogue of parliament
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Jonathan Pew, railway industry worker:
"It (the suspension of parliament) has made me much more open to the idea of Scottish independence than I would have been, had we not been in the situation where the Westminster government was being closed down with an apparent desire to effectively force through a No Deal Brexit."
Edinburgh - 3 September 2019
22. Various of people walking in town centre
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Pauline (Surname not given) vox pop:
"I think it is just the general mood in this country. I think there is a recognition that as part of the UK, Scotland doesn't matter and our opinion doesn't matter, what we vote for doesn't matter. We are not an equal in the union, whereas we would be within the EU - our voice would matter."
24. St Giles Cathedral
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Ishbel MacDonald, vox pop:
"I mean I do believe in the UK as a union, but I think the way things are, I might have to vote to leave the union, because I can't really accept the government we have in Westminster. The whole system is broken, it is anti-democratic - I don't really want to be part of it."
26. Scottish flag
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Honor Flynn, vox pop:
"It (the suspension of parliament) has actually made it stronger for me for independence. It has definitely made it stronger and a lot of my friends actually voted 'no' and now everyone of them is going to be a 'yes' voter if it (second Scottish referendum) happens again."
28. Pan of Edinburgh town centre
29. Various of Scottish and Union flags waving in the wind
The National Wallace Monument in Stirling was built over a century ago to pay homage to one Scotland's most famous freedom fighters, Sir William Wallace.
The monument overlooks the site where Wallace led his men in the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge, which the Scottish side won.
For many Scots who would want to see their country independent from the United Kingdom, Wallace is a symbol of their yearning for self-determination.
The National Wallace Monument is a politically neutral charity that takes no stance on Scottish independence.
Edinburgh-based actor Gilchrist Muir says he's always felt Scottish rather than British and has long viewed the U.K.'s Union Jack flag as "a symbol of oppression."
For one of his more regular acting jobs, Muir dresses up in chain mail and leather as Sir William Wallace, recounting to tourists how the 13th century Scottish independence hero defeated English invaders in the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge. Wallace was later executed in London in 1305 - hanged, disemboweled and beheaded as a traitor to England's King Edward I.
Mel Gibson played Wallace in the 1995 movie "Braveheart." Posing for tourists' photos with his long sword, Muir borrows Gibson's signature cry from the film, howling: "Freedom!"
But out of costume, chatting in an Edinburgh pub over a beer, he's deeply pessimistic about any shift in Westminster's stance.
"It's like I'm a passenger in a car that's out of control, and the driver's left, and you have no say over where the car's going. That's what it feels like right now. The Parliament has been hijacked. We have no say. Scotland has no voice," he says.
In 2014, Scots had a chance to go it alone.
Voters took part in a referendum in which they were asked: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
They cast their ballot, having been told their votes might be the most important they'd ever cast, as the choice wouldn't be offered again for at least a generation.
So when the ballot-count delivered a clear 55-45 split against independence, that seemed to settle it: Scotland would, for the foreseeable future, remain with England, Wales and Northern Ireland in a United Kingdom governed from London.
But less than two years later came another epoch-shaping and even more earth-shaking referendum, the Brexit poll.
While the UK voted to leave the European Union, Scots distinguished themselves as the biggest dissenters.
Not only did Scotland vote overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, it was the only one of the UK's four parts where not a single constituency delivered a "Yes" vote to leave.
Simply put: Scotland is being dragged largely unwillingly toward a messy divorce, scheduled to take place on 31 October, quite possibly without an agreement to cushion expected blows to businesses and households.
Disgruntlement with Brexit and machinations in Westminster that have pushed the UK ever closer to a No Deal departure is so keenly felt in Scotland that independence is back as an issue.
Many who voted no to independence are now apparently changing their minds.
Chris Deerin, director of the Reform Scotland think-tank, was a firm "No" in 2014, describing the idea of a breakup of the union with Britain as "utterly bizarre" and "almost unthinkable" in his political commentaries at the time.
As Brexit looms, Deerin's tune is changing.
"If Scotland is independent in 2025, 2030, I think Brexit will pretty obviously be the main reason for that. ... It has set Scotland against England."
Scottish flags, with a white cross on a blue background, hang inside and outside the distillery where Dale McQueen brews gin.
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, who champions calls for a second independence referendum by 2021, opened his new factory this year in Callander, with spectacular views of surrounding crags.
McQueen says he hopes to be able to plow profits from his fast-growing business into a second referendum campaign.
"Scotland didn't vote for Brexit and so, against the will of the Scottish people, we are being forced out of Europe," he said, adding "I'm certainly of the opinion that Scotland could be a much more prosperous country living on its own economy, making its own rules."
Rather than be shackled to what they suspect could become a diminished and isolated post-Brexit UK, advocates of independence are clamouring for another referendum to allow Scotland to strike out on its own, and perhaps even re-join the EU at some point.
But Scots wanting a second shot at independence won't automatically get one.
The UK government has repeatedly ruled out the possibility, saying Scots had their say and that a second vote could heap further division on the country already riven by generational, regional, political and economic divides over Brexit.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's hardball negotiating tactics since he took office in July, replacing Theresa May after she failed to get Parliament's backing for her Brexit deal with the EU, suggest to some Scots that he's especially unlikely to yield.
Johnson has taken steps to suspend Parliament for part of the remaining weeks before the Oct. 31 departure, shrinking options and time for lawmakers who want to stop a chaotic no-deal departure. Johnson's critics have likened him to a dictator and his maneuverings to a coup.
"Are you a democrat or not? Do you respect the will of the Scottish people or not" said Ian Blackford, a lawmaker with the pro-EU Scottish National Party, addressing Johnson as the U.K. Parliament reconvened Tuesday in London.
"The Scottish people did not vote for Brexit. The people of Scotland did not vote for a no-deal Brexit. They did not vote for the Tory party and they certainly did not vote for this prime minister," Blackford added during the raucous debate.
Britain's Parliament will attempt to defy Johnson's Brexit plans on Wednesday as lawmakers seek a way out of the impasse that has gripped the nation since the 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
The House of Commons is confronting Johnson over his insistence that the U.K. leave the EU on Oct. 31 even without a withdrawal agreement to cushion the economic blow. On Wednesday, it will consider a measure that will try to block a departure without a deal, amid cries from lawmakers that a no-deal Brexit will cause irreparable harm.
