the following months, and won a landslide majority in Scotland at the UK general election the following year; ending 51 years of dominance by Scottish Labour. Many long-serving Labour politicians lost their seats in the biggest political upset in decades, with the SNP winning all but three Scottish House of Commons seats and displacing the Liberal Democrats to become the third party of the United Kingdom; despite only standing for election in Scotland. On Thursday, 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on continuing membership of the European Union, which resulted in 52% of the British electorate voting for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. A second Scottish independence referendum has been proposed, as 62% of the Scottish electorate voted for the UK to remain in the European Union, and guaranteed prosperity through single market access was part of the Better Together campaign's argument to convince the Scottish people to vote to stay part of the UK. In 2021, former SNP Leader and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond launched the Alba Party and announced it would run in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, to try and a achieve "supermajority" for Scottish independence. However, the party failed to win any seats in Parliament. On 15 June 2022 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared that she plans to hold a second Scottish independence referendum in October 2023. Popular culture Poetry In 1375, Scottish makar, or court poet, John Barbour completed the epic poem The Brus, which retells and celebrates the deeds of Robert the Bruce, who led the Scottish people in their Wars of Independence against Kings Edward I and Edward II of England and who ultimately became King of Scotland. Around 1488, Scottish makar Blind Harry wrote the epic poem The Wallace, about the life and death of Scottish nationalist leader William Wallace. Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair (), a Jacobite war poet and major figure in Scottish Gaelic literature, has also been having a growing influence upon both Scottish nationalism and republicanism. Despite his own personal monarchism and passionate loyalty to the House of Stuart, Alasdair's many poetic denunciations and satires against the House of Hanover, the ancestors of the modern British royal family, have been admired, praised, and translated by poets and writers who favour Scottish independence. The events of the Scottish Wars of Independence are also a regular theme in the verse of Scotland's national