The greatest thing that can happen to the United Kingdom is its dissolution. The smaller each governmental area, the less the power of each government can be flexed, and the more places we can all easily escape to if our own particular government becomes too overbearing. What we really need here in the UK is the German situation of half a millenia ago, with six hundred or more independent cities, bishoprics, and polities - the more anarchic the better - but I'll settle for a free Scotland first, followed by a free Wales, and then a free Ulster!*So it is with great expectation that we witness the gathering breakup of the British Union, and the fears of the Westminster politicians at the loss of their power. And it is with even greater pleasure that we wish the Great Scottish People their freedom back, stolen from them in 1707 by a rotten railroaded deal set up by a corrupt Scottish government elite. (Oh, and if all the Scottish MPs at Westminster, including Badger Darling and Toad Brown, should happen to find their blood-sucking beaks pulled from the back of their English host to find no such happy home awaiting them in a free Scotland, don't expect to find too many tears drenching this particular diarist's writing desk, except perhaps ones of joy!)
So Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), consider yourself an AngloAustrian hero, for your increasingly successful work on the secession of Scotland. Go Alex, go!* Or a free Ireland - it's none of my business what other people choose to do with their lives, so long as they don't encroach on mine. Though ideally, I would prefer the current Irish republic to break up too, to end the life of its own appalling nanny-state government. Indeed, one day I pray for an independent Ulidia, Oriel, Southern Ui Neill, Northern Ui Neill, Leinster, Munster, Connaught, and Breifne, along with a whole host of totally independent city states such as Dubh Linn, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick - in fact the exact situation before the Normans got to Ireland and tried to enslave it, after they first fragged England in 1066. Imagine how magnificent such a free Ireland would be - a whole host of Hong Kongs, Singapores, and Monacos, vying for the title of best place in the world to live. Magnificent.
2 comments:
Yes, all very well in principle.
But you've forgotten the elephant in the living room.
Alex Salmond's vision is not a free Scotland, it's a Scotland still subjugated to the Elephant.
The elephant will be delighted at the breakup of the UK, in fact it has been planning just that for years and years. See under "regionalisation". Divide and rule, is the elephant's game. So much easier to boss a lot of small units than one large one with a lot of history and pride behind it.
I'm all for Scotland's freedom, but it is not what is on offer.
Meddle at your peril.
What the Scottish people decide to do with themselves once they are free is up to them. If they want to sleepwalk into the new Soviet Union, that will be their choice.
I have a feeling however that once Mr Salmond has achieved his wish, and Scotland frees itself from England, it will no longer be a cakewalk for him. New political parties will spring up almost immediately, the SNP may break up, and I'm hoping the land which gave us David Hume, will once again provide great liberal thinkers, once the "English Tories" are out of the game.
Scotland will lose the English tax subsidy, and will also lose the chippy excuse that everything bad in Scotland is due to the English.
Scotland will be on its own two feet. England will also become a much freer place, with much less socialist influence. If the new Scottish government should try to create a socialist Nirvana, most of the wealth creators of Scotland will move directly out and move down south.
Due to the loss of English tax, and its own wealth creators Scotland will face a choice. Either ditch socialism, or enter long-term poverty. My knowledge of the Scots leads me to believe that they will ditch socialism.
And just as the Irish have discovered how to stick it to the EU, I suspect Scotland will too. And that once they have tasted independence and freedom, they will be loathe to simply adopt another imperial master.
But, whatever either of us think on this topic, Scottish independence is, in my mind, almost a done deal. You won't hear many in England worrying about it too much, and once Labour are booted out at the next General Election, and Scotland is almost entirely in the hands of the SNP, independence is almost a certainty.
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