Saturday, September 13, 2014

Scottish Independence?


This upcoming week we may see Scotland acquire something it hasn't had since the 18th Century, that being Scottish independence.  If a majority of Scottish voters vote "yes" on a referendum on September 18, Scotland will resume independent status and the United Kingdom will shrink to just being England and Wales.

Let's hope Scottish voters take a page from the Quebecois and vote "no".  Its a terrible idea.

Yes, the Scots remain a separate culture, but even before de jure unification the Scots, English and Welsh people had been so closely associated with each other, as they would have to be given that they all share a single large island, that the intertwining of their destinies was inevitable.  They've so impacted each other that they are a British people, with separate, but not that separate, national identities.  They further share a common history, and like or it or not, they'll continue to share a common fate as they move forward.   It'll be easier to deal with that fate together, rather than separately.

It'd be a shame to see the United Kingdom cease to be that.  Here's hoping that Scotland remains in it.

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