The United Kingdom is in many respects a highly unusual country. It is a unitary state comprising four countries. Well, there are questions surrounding Ulster’s status – province or country – but that isn’t the topic of this post. England, Wales, Scotland and Ulster are distinct political entities, but there is only one sovereign state and that is the United Kingdom. Scotland, Wales and Ulster have assemblies to sort out certain local affairs as they see fit, but this is a right granted by Westminster. In short, there is absolutely no inherent sovereignty in any polity in the UK except the UK itself. This is in stark contrast to Germany, Australia or Mexico where sub-national units hold varying degrees of sovereignty within a federal nation-state.
Scotland has fared better than most. Scotland was able to develop a perfectly sensible and highly functional legal system prior to 1707. This fact was respected and Scotland was allowed to keep it after merging its parliament with England’s. When Germany’s myriad states joined into a united Empire under a dominant Prussia its diverse legal systems were gradually unified under the German Civil Code. As civil law goes, Germany’s was a stroke of brilliance and has been emulated around the world. In other unitary states things were far worse for integrated regions. France paid absolutely no respect to the traditions and customs of its ancient provinces. In fact, post-Revolutionary governments have sought to crush every vestige of difference in their mad drive to create a unified French state in the image of the Île-de-France. Education and religious matters were similarly left to those of a distinctly Tartan persuasion to sort out themselves. There were a few challenges in the 18th century but cooler heads prevailed and Scotland retained a very distinct sense of being a country within a country.
It is for this reason that I find the Ghastly Sturgeon Woman’s constant shrieking about “Scotland’s place” to be ever so slightly irksome. Scotland has done very well out of its union with England, Wales and Ulster. It has a parliament of its own, not a mere assembly. Scotland even has its own heraldry. In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s Scotland’s unique status was acknowledged by special reverse designs for shilling pieces. It took until the 1980s for Wales, Northern Ireland or England to be similarly acknowledged in coinage. The bloody Scots even issue their own rudding banknotes which are honoured with a nearly Latin disregard after a change in series. I received a few defunct Ulster banknotes. I could change them in Belfast, no worries. Jockish banknotes? No, might as well take a few Soviet roubles to a shop in Moscow. Anyway… Are they really that mad north of Hadrian’s Wall? They want to be a sovereign state in the EU, but with an open border and shared currency with the rest of the UK as it prepares to leave the EU. I’m thoroughly disgusted.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Allegedly Ms May led Nicola to believe that the SNP could block Brexit – or am I wrong? Sounds to me as if the SNP might get some serious concessions in return for backing off. Any ideas?
Janus: I’m not entirely sure what May thinks she is doing. Everyone knows that the SNP have less integrity than a washed-up street walker and all the class of a NED junkie. Either May doesn’t want to be the PM to see the Union collapse during her time as PM or she is giving la Nicola a lot of rope with which to hang herself. The EU expects and demands that the UK leave and no UK government could credibly function after failing to honour a referendum result. Nicola could well be shown up for being the bag of hot air she is.
Christopher, I think your rope idea is correct. The EU wants the UK to trigger article 50 asap and will be putting pressure on Sturgeon not to delay things. She’ll soon discover just how many friends she has among the europrats.
Sheona: As I follow this pantomime I wonder if Sturgeon is utterly deranged, utterly disingenuous or both. When she flew to Brussels she was treated with no greater courtesy than Malu Dreyer, Stefan Carlsson or Eric Ciotti. That is, the governor of a province. Her efforts to garner support have all failed. Does she think Scots are stupid?
In rhe Trident debate in the House today, Ms May pointed out that Scots in rhe polls support Trident but the SNP oppose it. Answer from tge SNP benches? None, just baying wolves.
Janus: If May and Davidson work together and keep pressure on the SNP they might just exploit their fissures and make them crack. Cameron underestimated Salmond and Sturgeon ran circles around him. The former Labour opposition at Holyrood were an absolute joke and Dugdale couldn’t even state clearly if she was a unionist or not. It will be hard for Sturgeon to play the “poor wee Scots Las” card against May and Davidson.
Ms May has now said Nicola is deluded!
About the only friend Sturgeon found in Brussels was Juncker and he was only trying to make trouble for the UK.
Janus: She’s bloody right, too!
Sheona: Juncker doesn’t have many friends in Brussels these days,either. Not surprising that a glorified miscreant appointed well above her capacities and a failed PM of a micro-state completely out of his depth struck a chord of mutual sympathy.
She also shows darwinian tendencies! The idiots want to get Trident jobs out of Scotland! Is that democracy at work?
SNP update: ‘we never said that.’ So now they want to defect after Brexit. Pity nobody wants them.
Although Scottish voters largely chose to remain in the EU, Scots in reality weren’t significantly less sceptical of the EU than English or Welsh voters. Joining the eurozone and Schengen aren’t exactly popular ideas north of Hadrian’s Wall. In a typically Celtic fashion the English are sanctimoniously bashed but the other countries — including the Republic of Ireland — hid behind England and sought to benefit from its opt-outs. Now, the SNP want to join the EU as an independent state but they want to pretend that they will be able to keep all the opt-outs that the UK had. This isn’t bloody likely as the EU isn’t keen on giving any new state opt-outs. They want Trident jobs, but they don’t want Trident. They want the English pound, but they don’t want union with England. They want an open border with England, but they want to break all constitutional ties with England and go back to the pre-1707 settlement. Not bloody likely! I admit that this posturing has made my views on North Britain grow dimmer.
Christopher, Well put, what they want are all the benefits of the union without being part of it. I expect Mrs May will have marked their card with Frau Merkel.
Jazz: The UK was seen as a thorn in the EU’s side. It was tolerated only because it was extremely useful with its military and diplomatic relations and because it was too big to be pushed about entirely. The last thing that the EU wants at this point is a new member state with 1pc of the population making the same demands. It would not be tolerated and it would not be countenanced. Sturgeon’s blind hatred of England makes her more than willing to turn Scotland into another Republic of Ireland while lying through her teeth the entire time.
The NSW keeps a supply of rolled socks beside my chair so at least I have something non-damaging to throw at the television whenever that tartan harridan appears. Nothing winds me up more than some shouty, ginger irrelevance assuming delusions of adequacy and presuming to dictate terms to all and sundry.
Look, love, you Northrons voted in a referendum to remain part of the United Kingdom, which effectively scuppered your nationalist ambitions and left your party dead in the water. The people of the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, which is binding on the whole country including Scotland. The Parliament of the United Kingdom voted to renew the Trident nuclear deterrence which also defends Scotland.
End of argument. So which bit of the concept of democracy is it exactly that escapes your meagre understanding? Trying to employ that strange EU concept of having repeated referendums until the ‘right’ result is achieved isn’t going to impress anyone, least of all the UK electorate.
I really do blame Alex Salmond.
OZ
Oop ere in mid-Portugal I heartly agree, OZ. Akshully I think Ms May has already shown her the yellow card. Ca nobody rid us of that pesky witch? 😷
Oz: As much as she talks, The Wee Ranga is unlikely to actually call another referendum as there isn’t really that much support for another vote in Scotland. By most reasonable accounts Scotland is suffering from extreme political fatigue. Within two years there have been two elections and two plebiscites. Both plebiscites were extremely divisive and the regular elections were tedious bores. She seemingly wishes to only keep her daftest supporters turning up to vote for her and making contributions to the SNP’s kitty. That way, she can pretend to be a stateswoman without having any responsibility. The risk of this, of course, is that a plebiscite could be called in England, Wales and Ulster on a simple question: “Should all portions of the Island of Great Britain north of the River Tee be hoisted on a distinctly tartan petard”?
Janus: Ms May has graciously extended the offer to allow the leaders of devolved Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments to participate in Brexit negotiations. They will not be leaders or have the capacity to enter into their own arrangements, but they will be able to air their concerns and have them officially be taken into account.
Oh, how I wish that a plebiscite could be called in England, Wales and Ulster on a simple question: “Should all portions of the Island of Great Britain north of the River Tee be hoisted on a distinctly tartan petard”? Sir John Betjeman would have been proud of that.
I have a dream of a referendum held specifically in England, Wales and Ulster in which a substantial majority voted to disenfranchise the tartan hordes and let them get on with it. In this dream a small barking dog on a leash (a Scottish terrier, perchance) is suddenly let loose only to run to hide behind the nearest tree for fear of actually having to stand up for itself against a pack of German Shepherds, Tervurens and French poodles.
OZ
Significant perhaps that HM the Queen chooses Welsh corgis to keep her company. 🐩
OZ: joined, of course, by a Kerry Beagle. The Kerry Beagle that always nipped at the British Bulldog’s heels as it hid behind it knowing that said Alsatians, Tervurens and French poodles would have ripped it to shreds years ago otherwise. I find it interesting that whereas the Swedes, Danes and Finns admit that they are concerned that their main ally against Franco-Germanic stupidity has voted to leave the EUtania, the Irish take petty swipes despite having been even more reliant on the UK gaining concessions than the others. Let’s see how long the Irish will suffer the EU’s inanity with their protector gone.