Disunited Kingdom

I think we should change the abbreviation for the United Kingdom, from UK to DK, to better reflect the current state of things. For that matter, the state that things have pretty much always been in, since the botched unification, centuries ago. We seem to find it easy to accept, that countries that made up the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, or The Soviet Union, should naturally be returned to their previous independent status, so why not in our own country? I have some extreme views on this subject, and I am not even a Nationalist, far from it in fact.

Ireland. The only people left anywhere, who believe that the six counties known as Ulster, should still not be reunified with the Republic of Ireland, are the Unionists and Protestant militants. The sorry history of this troubled island has been the subject of far greater academic works than this humble Blog, but I have more freedom to speak plainly. Give it back to Ireland. It was theirs to start with, and they deserve to have it back. They can also have the huge bill for running it, pick up the tab for all the benefits that have to be ploughed into it, and deal with the political and religious problems that exist, in what is plainly their country. I know we gave them the headache in the first place, but that was a long time ago, and they have to start somewhere. And why do they have to have a separate Assembly, as well as representation in Westminster?

Wales. Long before the Tudors, we have felt that we have some claim to this alien place. Perhaps we are obsessed with rain, or sheep, or just like their choirs. Actually, it was their coal that we wanted, to fuel our industry, and warm our toes. They have their own language, which most of them don’t speak, and claim to have a ‘culture’, something I have seen little evidence of, save for Druids, but admittedly know little about anyway. The main industrial output of Wales, fossil fuels and steel, are no longer as important as they once were, and if the publicity is to be credited, Tourism is now the main industry there. They don’t really like the English, and resent our holiday homes there, even going so far as to burn them down; and if you go to the ‘wrong part’, they speak to you in Welsh, to show their contempt. Yet they advertise on TV in England, asking you to go here on holiday! They also have an Assembly, as well as sending members of parliament to Westminster. Let them have independence too. Let them pay for their unemployed, their schools, and their literature in both languages.  Let’s see how well they do. I think I can make an educated guess.

Scotland. They call the English ‘The Auld Enemy’, and with good reason. Ever since the Romans built a wall to keep them out, they have been trying to get back in. They like to get jobs in the Armed Forces, or work in London, or the towns in the North, anything to get away from Scotland. There are probably more Scots living in England, than in their own country. They also have their own legislature, a grander affair, called The Scottish Parliament, in an incongruous, unattractive building that should never have been allowed, in a nice historical place like Edinburgh. Yet, like the other ‘countries’ of the UK, they still send members to the parliament in Westminster. Even the proposed referendum on Independence is a Scottish-only affair, nobody else gets a vote. This is a nation that we were still fighting in comparatively modern times, the late 18th Century, and one as foreign to us as any other European sovereign state. We cannot hold our heads proudly at how we have dealt with them over the centuries. There was land-grabbing, expulsions, mass murders, and a sort of selective ethnic cleansing. In modern times, we also used their young men as ready cannon fodder for our wars, and then stole their offshore oil, just to rub salt in the wound. So, let us say ‘sorry’, give them back their country, grant the independence that some of them seek, and let them exist happily on oil revenues, and whisky exports.

And what of England? We have no other Assembly, or Parliament to represent our unique views. We are not even considered to have any such uniqueness, or the need for additional representation. England, at least one small part of it, supplies most of the wealth that feeds the whole United Kingdom, yet is reviled for its former bad deeds, living in a condition of constant apology. The national flag of St George, once a proud symbol, has now been hijacked by the Far Right, becoming as unacceptable as a Swastika. If we deducted all the income generated by the other three countries in our Union, we would find that England could manage very well on its own, even better without the financial burden of propping up these ailing satellite nations.

Let’s issue new passports, and revise nationalities. Have borders that have to be crossed, different currencies, and free repatriation to those living here already. We can take the blame for everything bad that ever happened in the history of the British Isles, proffer sincere apologies, explain that it was all a very long time ago, and we are giving everyone a fresh start. Then we can stand back, and put our hands over our ears, to block out the cries of woe. The only way to prove to these other nations of the UK, that they could never exist alone, is to let them try. And then not let them back in.

We do not live in a ‘United Kingdom’, and we never have. One day, we may have a government brave enough to speak this truth, and not only grant independence to those other countries on these islands but actually force them to take it.