“the Scotch and the Northern Irish (and to a lesser degree the Welsh) get to run their own affairs whilst still voting to impose health and social policies on England at Westminster.”
I hear the same complaints from “British” Canadians (a misleading term, as “former Commonwealth Canadians” would be more fitting given the umbers from Asia) about the Quebecois; the fact is that in both cases they would be much smaller, insignificant countries without them.
“it is about England’s independence from its Celtic overlords, particularly the scotch, who, as Scotsman correctly implies, are over-represented in positions of power in London”
I’d believe that if there was a Scottish monarch on the money, or if they used the flag of Wales (the best of the bunch in terms of flags), or if reunion with Ireland was on a ballot in their six northern counties.
Even the criteria you somewhat arbitrarily select are not particularly sound. You may have overlooked the doubtless uncomfortable (for you) facts that the Union began when a Scottish monarch (James Sixth and First)was invited to take over the English throne; and that the present constitutional arrangements in Northern Ireland were endorsed in a referendum by the people of the island of Ireland as a whole, both the North and the Republic.
Contrary to popular belief, the Monarchy is more Scottish than English. The Queen’s mother was more Scottish than her father was English, the QM was born at Glamis Castle and was the daughter of a Scottish Earl, and in case you hadn’t noticed, the whole family spend more time poncing around at Balmoral in kilts than they do at Buckingham Palace, which they have long been known to dislike. And don’t forget that it was a Scottish King who inherited the English throne, not the other way around.
The Welsh are a proud people, but they aren’t quite as nationalistic as the Scots. They are more likely to see themselves as British, but even those who don’t for the most part don’t want independence because they know that the UK public sector is a major employer there.
As for Northern Ireland, they have devolution and the right to vote for parties that want re-union with Ireland. Unfortunately, most of them don’t believe in this, so we are stuck with them.
The English are taken for granted. The celts would go apes*it if they were treated like second-class British citizens the way we are. They have more democracy, greater control over their own affairs, and greater control over OUR affairs, which I wouldn’t mind if it was reciprocated, but it isn’t.
If these are the terms by which the union must be maintained, by granting them privileged status over the majority, I would rather we cut them loose, sadly, we won’t be asked, which is par for the course these days, so the question of whether the scotch shall continue to mooch off our taxes and rule over us or piss off and leave us to ourselves is only in their hands, not ours...