I don’t think there’s a serious commentator around today, in Britain, who doesn’t believe that Irish Reunification and Scottish Independence are now the ones to beat. It won’t come immediately, but the direction of travel is clear.
Anything else is, I’m afraid to say, for the birds. British Unionism, as a viable political - social - and cultural glue as well as a majority national identity (even if in the dead letter of the law it still exists at present) is utterly dead. Deader than dead.
We are at dissolution of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia-level stuff now, and that’s no kidding nor vain hope from me. You’ll believe it when you see, but here on the ground I
know it.
In 2014, when the last Scottish Independence referendum was held, I was a passionate young British Unionist and (at the time, newly) former Tory voter. Think on that just for a moment.
Me.
Do you know which party I voted for last night?
The SNP, for the first time in my entire life.
Here is what I wrote, on this very forum, 5 years ago in 2014 (which now seems like an aeon ago in a faraway, almost mythical land):
Scottish independence: Yes camp hails 'momentum' World News
Excellent post!
We need more devolution, not independence.
I distrust the sort of nationalism I see espoused by the SNP and the Yes campaign. What I admire about Britain is that it is a country comprised of multiple nationalities and ethnic groups. I feel that an overarching ‘British’ identity, held together not by ethnicity or nationalism as such, but by shared civic institutions, values and political traditions is a restraint on the ‘nationalisms’ of the English, Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and perhaps Cornish as well.
Look at the person I am now: the last five years of pre-and-post Brexit trauma have led to a total repudiation of nearly everything I once held, believed and identified myself with.
In the years since 2016, I’ve been a half-hearted but still earnest British Unionist. Last night, I passed the rubicon and voted for Scottish independence in the European Union, as did many, many other Scottish unionists.
The fact is, that there wasn’t one UK-wide ‘election’ last night, with a ‘national’ picture - no matter what the legal formalities dictate.
No - socially and demographically, there were three entirely atomised and self-contained elections taking place in England/Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with hugely divergent political configurations, cultural dynamics and end-results.
In Scotland: the British Unionist parties - Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems - were soundly defeated by Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP which ran on a clear ‘Stop Brexit / Remain’ and ‘pro-independence’ ticket. This is a recording of her reaction last night:
In Northern Ireland - Pro-EU Nationalist MPs now outnumber Unionists for the first time since the partition in 1922.
In England - there was a resounding Tory Brexiteer victory.
. The Labour Party itself was established in 1900, before 1910 it was held by the Liberal Party. It’s never voted Conservative before though.
