We’re on the cusp of a vote that may signal the end of the United Kingdom. And somehow it’s treated as just another news story. And that just strikes me as strange.
Yes, there’s still Northern Ireland. And technically, it’s the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain encompasses the Union of England and Scotland. Yes, through a different historical arrangement there’s Wales – but Wales is actually part of the Kingdom of England, even though it is by some definitions a different nationality. But by any historical standard, and we’re talking history that goes back to 1603 and 1707, without Scotland, we’re talking about a fundamentally different state – whether it’s Great Britain or the UK that is your reference point.
I should also note that, yes, there’s press attention, especially in the UK. But even so it just seems less than I would have thought there would be.
Some of this is certainly due to the fact that the UK casts not nearly as great a shadow as it did a couple generations ago. And in the era of the EU (though the UK is still half in, half out), you have smaller and smaller nation-states nonetheless subsumed under larger interlocking sovereignties and it all seems to work. It’s this last point that seems the real game changer – combined with the fact that “independence” is being combined with so many continuing connections to the rump UK that it’s a bit hard to distinguish from the greater degree of devolution the Unionists are offering. (Here’s a piece about what division would mean for the UK military. It actually cuts quickly the heart of the UK’s position as a nuclear power.)
But for all that, wtf? An independent Scotland? An end to the UK and Great Britain by any real definition? I’ve just got a hard time getting my head around that. Why? History-mindedness. Stodginess. In so many words, I’m really not sure any good reason at all. Certainly nothing that trumps whatever the wishes of the Scots’ might be and what seems to be England’s reluctant acceptance of disunion. Still, WTF?
