This piece is the splash in the Sunday Times today.
You can read it here, although it is behind the paywall.
The opening is unequivocal:
“The UK is facing a constitutional crisis that will strain the Union as new polls reveal a majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland want referendums on the break-up of Britain.”
However, that is not what caught my attention, dear reader.
The following par is where the action is for this Fenian:
“A four-country survey we commissioned, based on separate polls in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, also found that the sense of British identity that once bound the country together is disintegrating.”
Once more:
“…the sense of British identity that once bound the country together is disintegrating.”
This will not be good news for those in Narne Arne who scream at strangers in the street that they are “Bradaish”.
Of course, that same toxic world view is also one of the defining features of the Ibrox klanbase.
As my pal Gideon recently observed losing the Six Counties is no biggie for his country.
However, he stated Scotland is a quite different matter indeed because it was an integral part of Britain whereas Northern Ireland was not.
The union of the two kingdoms in 1707 created the British state.
Once that was in place, they would build the first truly transglobal imperium.
It changed the world.
Both England and Scotland were players in the imperial game before they joined forces.
The current Scottish nationalist narrative that their part of Britain is a “colony” is historically illiterate.
The first British monarch was a Scot.
In the immediate aftermath of the Act of Union, many in Scotland defined themselves as “North Britons”.
1707 was an imperialist marriage that would soon have a global impact.
The year before the Great War started the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time, and by 1920 it covered 13,700,000 square miles, that is 24% of the Earth’s total land area.
It was an imperium that was disproportionately run by Scots.
A fact Shashi Tharoor pointed that out in his magisterial work “Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India”.
He especially mentions in the role of the Scots in the “looting of India”.
However, a little more than two decades after VE Day in 1945 most of it was gone including India itself.
Without the glue of the imperialist project, the gravitational pull that brought England and Scotland together started, over time, to weaken.
The Brexit vote can be seen, in part, as a nostalgic reaction of the immediate post-war generation in Britain.
A nostalgic look back to lost glories and not just among English voters.
It is worth remembering that around a million people in Fair Caledonia also voted Leave in 2016.
What is undeniable is that Brexit is a game-changer in these islands.
I’ve just ordered this new book by Gavin Esler.
The Ex-BBC man is coming to believe that the break-up of the UK is inevitable… and it’ll be even messier than Brexit.
In a recent piece in the Daily Mail, the journalist stated that:
“I am from a Scottish and Ulster unionist family stretching back to the 17th Century.”
When someone of his background sees the geopolitical tectonic plates shifting in this archipelago, then something historic is underway.
For the avoidance of doubt, the people of Scotland have every right to assert their right to national self-determination in any way that they collectively agree.
There is also an international treaty, lodged at the UN, which guarantees a Border Poll in Northern Ireland is certain criteria are met.
That time is now almost upon us.
The census of 2021 will undoubtedly show that the demographic basis of that artificially constructed ethnostatelet is now gone.
Of course, all of this will make Snarlene cry.
Moreover, it will also rob the Ibrox klanbase of a key part of their toxic belief system.
All good then…
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Who the F**K is Bjorn, I take it you know you are infiltrated by britnats Phil. I despair of anyone who wants to “remain” in this great union. Th elast twenty polls since January 2020 have shown a majority for Indy, imagine it was witched round it would be non-stop “there’s no mandate” now, we have BOJO the man child visiting in a pandemic. Don’t get me started!!!!
Phil – what an elegant and intellectual reply. Neil O’Donnell.
You really do have selective reading habits that suit your agenda. I prefer cold light of day facts to one man’s opinion in his one man book.
Salmond had started celebration drinking during indyref2014 believing polls that he was heading for a 55% victory. Here’s the result:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides/results
3.7million turned out to vote 84.59% of the electorate and the quiet majority ran away with it leaving Salmond with an unwelcome hangover.
The polls were utter pish.
The same happened more recently with Corbyn and with Brexit. Boris got a huge majority and the Polls were pish.
Your polls copy pasted in here are pish.
Thanks Phil. Maybe the dark money for the BREXIT leave campaign was handed to patsys, but the ultimate aim was to smash the Union not preserve
History is a curious beastie when it comes to looking back at how things started and how they eventually panned out.
Take the invasion of Ireland by the Normans for example.
A dispute between two Irish Kings and a cordial invite by one of them initiated the Norman entry into the debate.
Backed of course by the Pope in Rome no less who had his own axe to grind with the Irish.
Thing is though the initial invasion of these Islands didn’t start there.
No according to historians the IRISH were invading Wales,the north of England and the West cast of Scotland long before the spat between two Irish men brought the English into it.
The fact Dalriata existed before England did is testament to these things.
Yes Britain has a horrendous back catalogue of dirty deeds around the Globe but we were by no means alone in that respect.
Mankind has a habit of repeating these things after all.
I very much doubt the vast majority living on both sides of the Irish Sea had much to do with the planning of any of it.
As has been stated below these types of activities were generally down to those either in power or fighting to get power.
The King of Leinster was certainly a prime example of this.
People tend to cherry pick from history to make their point or back their own beliefs.
I hope Ireland is United soon.
Peacefully and without another drop of innocent blood being shed.
If Brexit has been the catalyst for this then was it really a bad thing Phil?
I voted Brexit in rejection to Neoliberal Capitalism.
Asked to do so again then the answer would be the same.
I should also state that it is believed that St Patrick himself was taken as a slave on one of these raids into Wales or what is now the North of England.
Taking slaves,and pillaging other people Lands it seems was a last time many forming Nations took part in.
As I said cherry picking history is never a great look no matter what side of an argument/debate you fall on.
I does stimulate debate though Phil so keep on keeping on.
While I don’t disagree with your assessment of Scotland’s role in “the empire on which the sun never sets” I kind of feel you miss the role classism, which is one of the founding pillars of British imperialism, played there. Yes the first king after the act of Union was a Scot, but he was born into royalty. Yes, the act of union was a signed document, but the ‘parcel o’ rogues’ who signed that document were from the same class of lords who predominantly partook in the failed attempt at a Scottish empire n the Darien experiment then looked to union to co er their financial losses.
I don’t believe in Scottish exceptionalism in the slightest but to be one of the middle-management of the empire who ordered atrocities from India and China, through Africa and Ireland and into the Americas you had to be the “right sort of person” Catholic’s and the underclasses need not apply at that point. All the underclasses were good for was either cannon fodder for the crown or cheap, expendable labour in the industrial revolution.
I know that the orcs do completely believe in Scottish and British exceptionalism but thankfully they are increasingly in the minority.
As someone who had boots on the ground in the last independence referendum I can state that a factor in the outcome last time were EU citizens who were lied to by those desperate to protect the historical embarrassment of *British* identity that the only way to ensure they were able to stay where they had chosen to make a life was to vote to retain the union.
That same demographic now realise their best hope of staying is to vote to end a toxic union and hope for re-entry to the EU.
I think the biggest roadblock now is whether Boris views blocking a referendum as the move which makes him look stronger and more decisive or whether getting rid of belligerent Scots who are a constant reminder of what a jingoistic act of self-harm brexit really was.
My biggest hope is that by the time we see out our latest Etonian (because for all the bollocks to the contrary classism is still alive and well in the toxic union) pm’s term a United ireland and an independent Scotland will be Celtic brothers united in Europe.
For me there were two majour issues that failed Independence. 1) Salmond allowing Cameron to introduce indy light, instead of what was asked, a straight yes or no. 2) The vow that fooled many into thinking we would get more power and more government work ( ship etc )
Scotland is building frigates on both the Clyde and the forth. Belfast and the English ports got nowt.
The MoD is in Glasgow.
Etc… etc….
SNP refused powers. Many powers. They refused welfare payment powers and refused Universal Credit, etc…. leaving them with the UK. SNP could have taken universal credit and raised it to any payment size they wished.
Food banks in Scotland didn’t exist until snp got power. There won’t be food banks on independence because those who donate food will need it for themselves. Everybody unemployed.
As a regular reader of your work, and a Scotsman, it irks me incessantly the regularity that you raise the issue of my ancestors behaviour regarding the british empire, while making out that your own countrymen were mere victims. The British Empire was created by the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”, a single state of which the territory now occupied by the Republic of Ireland was an integral part, just as Munster is an integral part of the Republic. Hiram Morgan in his article ‘An unwelcome heritage: Ireland’s role in British empire-building’ puts it thus; ‘England’s first colony was Ireland and English imperial chauvinism was derived from contact and confrontation with the Irish. These facts are indisputable. What is less remarked upon is the role that Irish men and women played in the creation and maintenance of the British empire. Far from empathising with indigenous peoples overseas, the Irish, whatever their experience at home, were as brutal as any other white colonisers. Not surprisingly, this paradoxical involvement in British imperialism has yielded an ambivalent heritage.
The Irish were involved from the outset. In the seventeenth century the Irish participated in the development of the sugar economy on the islands conquered from the Spanish in the Caribbean.’
Come on down off that pedestal.
Oh dear…
Firstly, the facts do not care if you are “irked”.
Secondly, neither do I.
Perhaps you believe that Shashi Tharoor was incorrect to reference the role of Scotland in the pillaging of his country.
The fork in the road between Ireland and Scotland apropos the imperial project happened at the start of the 17th century.
You had the Union of the Crowns we had the Flight of the Earls.
Both events happening within a few years of each other.
We lost our native aristocracy to the continent and they never returned.
Because Catholic emancipation didn’t happen until 1829 the Irish who would have been ardent imperialists ( as they were on the American frontier later on in the 19th century) were not given the opportunity.
I would refer you to Noel Ignatiev’s brilliant book “How the Irish became white”.
The simple truth is that the Scots were architects of the British state and provided the middle management of the empire they built with their English partners.
There is no Irish equivalent.
We had started to play a role by the start of the 20th century.
On this site will find a piece of mine from the Irish Post called “Bloody Sunday in the Punjab”.
Indeed, the concern on the 1916 conspirators was that if Ireland did not strike for her freedom then we could end up like Scotland!
Thankfully that didn’t happen.
It may also irk you to note that in the 20th century there was a serious secessionist effort here and a rather anaemic whinge in your own country.
When my father’s uncle was interned in Frngoch camp, he was guarded by kilted British soldiers.
I’m not on a pedestal, but I am in the European Union.
Gallant allies and all that…
But I am in the European union. Yes but not for long. Once the cash the UK put in is missed, how much more in tax are you willing to pay? Every country that puts money in will have to put in a whole lot more and that money will come from the people. ( that is if the EU last that long )
Germany is propping all of them up including the French. It won’t last long.
Scotland would lose £16bn from uk each year and need to find £4bn to give the EU as annual subscription (£20bn gross lost on Indy) but Scotland cannot get entry under eu rules as its 9% deficit breaks the EUs 3% ceiling. Scots deficit is rising each year not lowering so unless public spending is reduced by £13bn Scots ain’t entering the EU. It’s pie in the sky pish.
Scots do very little of their business with EU. We have nothing the EU wants.
SNP know all of this of course but tell the electorate lies. Pathological independence nutters brought up by snp parents and brainwashed from birth.
Oh and rUK will do zero trade with Indy Scotland. They’ll starve it. Scots kids will be domestic servants in England for generations.
One of my grandparents was Irish, and all eight great grandparents. I identify as a Scot of Irish descent. I was brought up a Catholic in Glasgow and Lanarkshire and experienced first hand the anti Irish/Catholic bigotry.
I am of course all for Scottish independence.
I’ve been following your blog since 2012 and have been both educated and entertained. You have shown bravery under fire and called out the cowardice of most of the 4th estate. You have also exposed the lack of governance by the football authorities.
I’m fully aware of the role of many Scots in their eager participation in the British Empire project be it as slave drivers, pirates, drug runners etc but you cannot deny quite a hefty Irish input too. I’m sure it was an Irish general who ordered the massacre at Amritsar and indeed the Duke of Wellington was Irish.
I fully support the calls for present day Scotland to acknowledge that eager participation. I also agree that there are still many in modern Scotland in complete denial but suggest that the influence of that element In Scottish society has been on the wane for decades. The Kirk has apologised for its role in demonising Irish immigrants and Billy Fullarton’s successors are but a despised rump on the fringe. We have had a lady Catholic Lord Advocate, a successor to the man who authorised the Glencoe massacre. Nobody could have predicted such a development even 25 years ago.
The SNP definitely had an Orange wing up until the late 1970s but such attitudes have no place either in the party or in Scottish civic society generally: a permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace as a prominent Protestant sports writer put it following a rampage by the Klan..
The fact is that Scottish independence has become the settled will of the Scottish people. Progressive journalists like yourself should be applauding this, rather than sniping at individuals who are not up to speed.
Ledj3 writes completely true words. I prefer his contribution to the Blogger.
Ireland and the Irish thrived in the British empire and put the boot in like any Scotsman. All the grand houses and buildings in Ireland were built on Empire money, including 90% of present day Dublin. Including the famous Post Office.
Irishmen were MPs in the Commons, Lords in the House of Lords, Admirals in the Royal Navy and Generals in the British Army.
Scottish independence would be fatal self harm. Madness. Sheer Madness.
The UK is on the cusp of being as great an economic power as it has ever been. Scotland needs to be part of that.
Take it bjorne you read the book ‘ Sovereign Individual.
I would certainly explain your views
Thanks Phil, pinged those two books for a read