Despite clearly being the dominant country in the UK, it seems to me that England got a raw deal out of absorbing Scotland. I'm guessing the whole movement towards independence today started when Scotland was granted their own Parliament again in 1999. The original merger dissolved the English and Scottish parliaments entirely and created the modern United Kingdom parliament. But now the Scottish have a local Parliment to represent their own interests, but the English do not -- they get representation only on their own city councils, the UK parliment, and the EU parliment. There's a legislative body for Scotland as a whole, but not England as a whole (and many of the UK government agencies that exist for "England" are shared jointly with Wales)
>> Anyway, Cameron cracks me up, subtract Scotland’s 59 MPs (only 1 of whom is a Tory) and Cameron could tell Nick Clegg is screw off because he would have a narrow MAJORITY. And yet he weeps and begs them to stay, enticing them with the possibly of his defeat in the next election (WTF?). Imagine New England and Hawaii leaving the US (Which would leave the Senate tied) and Mitch McConnell begging them not to. <<
He's said he won't resign if Scotland goes bye bye, so I think he's just trying to use it to get them to reconsider but it doesn't seem to be working. In short, it makes Cameron look weak and non-influential (which he is), so he's getting b---- slapped. I can see the point of the English government anyway... it used to be they controlled half the planet and now they can't even keep control over their own island. If Scotland leaves, I bet Ireland and Wales will be next. Once there's no more UK, England's influence in world affairs will greatly wane.
Of course, purely from idealogical point of view, British conservatives would be FAR better off without socialist Scotland influencing the makeup of the national government. The Scottish conservatives have a bit more influence in the Scottish parliament, but I think many of their seats are due to proportional representation, and the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is a Cameron-type CINO who supports gay marriage. The Scots would probably be better off creating their own political parties from scratch if they become independent.
>> Perhaps I do the merits of British unionism a great disservice (Scotland has offshore oil, important naval bases, and there’s the whole “national pride” thing), but it keeps coming back to that for me <<
If you were a British conservative, you'd most likely favor (or should I say "favour"?) keeping Scotland in the UK as a matter of traditional and national pride. By the same token, though, you'd probably support keeping the monarchy as part of the government for the same reason. As for me, I'm neutral on the issue. It would make more sense for me if they addressed the Irish independence question first. They've "temporarily" had two Ireland's for about 80 years now, haven't they?
And again, I note with irony -- the American conservatives who scream the loudest that "WE ARE A REPUBLIC!!!" seem to be the ones who would be happier if they were living in a UK style parliamentary system.
I thought so too but it actually created the "Parliament of Great Britain", which lasted until Great Britain and Ireland were United into the UK nearly a century later.
now the Scottish have a local Parliment to represent their own interests, but the English do not
And that's patently unfair, the Scottish Parliament now has power of most local affairs and England has no say. Yet Scottish MPs in Westminster can vote on "England and Wales" issues which are controlled by the UK Parliament. The obvious solution (if Scotland stayed) would simply be to exclude their MPs from such votes.
England and Wales are legally together, have been since Henry VIII officially annexed Wales to England. Independence for Wales would be tricker than Scotland and I don't see it being on the table any time soon if ever, the Welsh separatists are politically weak compared to their Scottish counterparts, there doesn't appear to be much desire amongst the Welsh people to seperate.
DJ's distant cousin used to be the leader of the Scottish Tories, Annabel Goldie, right DJ?
For Northern Ireland 2 of the counties are majority Unionist, Antrim and Down, I think they should stay with the UK if they wish. Reunification makes sense for the rest of NI, but heavens knows what that would do to Ireland politically, it's already a mess.