Referendum on Scottish Independence

[Traitorfish]

He's got a point. I mean, India was only, what, five hundred million people at the time? The mere jewel in the imperial crown? But if our damp little province were to abandon ship, why, the tremors would tear Europe asunder!

edit: The funny thing about all this, for me, is knowing that if and when Scotland does become independent, the view will slowly but surely shift to the conviction that it was always going to turn out like this, that any fool could see a multi-national state in the British Isles was a mad opium dream. That's how it went with Austria, with the Soviet Union, with Yugoslavia, and I don't see much reason to expect that the hacks will be any more critically-minded this time around. Today's crisis is tomorrow's common sense.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Wha's like us?!

 

[Farm Boy]

He's got a point. I mean, India was only, what, five hundred million people at the time? The mere jewel in the imperial crown? But if our damp little province were to abandon ship, why, the tremors would tear Europe asunder!

The funny thing about all this, for me, is knowing that if and when Scotland does become independent, the view will slowly but surely shift to the conviction that it was always going to turn out like this, that a multi-national state in the British Isles was always just some mad opium dream. That's how it went with Austria, with the Soviet Union, with Yugoslavia, and I don't see much reason to expect that the hacks will be any more critically-minded this time around.

Nothing that can't be solved by applying for your two voting members in the Imperial Senate. But you might have to ask nice. And tart it up a bit.

 

[Borachio]

Dozens of countries have gotten independence over the last 30 years, yet Scotland's independence will be the one that changes everything. You gotta love our commentariat--the most narrow-minded, short-memoried 'critics' the political elite have ever been blessed with!

Which are these dozens of countries that you're thinking of, though?

I mean, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites was responsible for all them, wasn't it?

I can't think of a single case which is comparable to Scotland. Ceding from a non-former Soviet-aligned European state. (There may have been one, I honestly can't think what it is, though. Greenland, maybe?)

Yet if Scotland had voted for independence, next would have been Catalonia, then who? The Basques, Corsica, Sardinia, Brittany, Wales, Northern Ireland, Bavaria? Why wouldn't there have been a cascade?

Catalonia may (almost certainly will) still pursue independence, but an independent Scotland would have given them a boost, that's not unreasonable to suppose.

 

[Viregel]

Last one was the Republic of Ireland technically, though the Cold War hadn't happened then so I assume it doesn't count.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Scotland is truly very unique, its rule by Westminster is key to the survival of all European states. A former fascist state like Spain may have survived the breakup of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and the USSR, but the breakaway of Scotland? It'll truly be finished then. France, Germany, Italy will all clearly follow, and the armies of evil will array themselves on Europe's torn plain waiting to vanquish the righteous.

 

[Borachio]

You may jest. But you may speak truer than you know.

Oh those no voters bear a heavy burden of responsibility! They've sold 50% of Europe down the river.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Or, alternatively, Scotland will be given independence, it'll be novel for a month or two, then everyone will forget about it. Then, 10 years later, due to some government incompetence (like building a channel in Canada or something foolish like that), you'll be broke, and you'll return to your ancestral land.

 

[Pangur Bán]

The strange thing about this whole 'Scottish independence sends Europe back to an era of fragmentation' is that Scotland actually existed when most of Europe was a lot more united than it is now, e.g. 1600:

I think it's the UK high school history curriculum that focuses far too much on the rather weird developments of Germany and Italy.

 

[JohannaK]

Oh yes they do!

Catalonia national football team

They won their match against Cape Verde 4-1 last December too. Puyol captained the team.

Yeah, but it's un unofficial thing due to being stateless and all. They can only play friendlies. To be precise, they play one friendly in Christmas and that's it. We played Cape Verde because nobody else wanted to.

 

[Borachio]

The strange thing about this whole 'Scottish independence sends Europe back to an era of fragmentation' is that Scotland actually existed when most of Europe was a lot more united than it is now, e.g. 1600:

I think it's the UK high school history curriculum that focuses far too much on the rather weird developments of Germany and Italy.

Bit of a mess in the kind of German area there, though.

 

[Viregel]

I think it's the UK high school history curriculum that focuses far too much on the rather weird developments of Germany and Italy.

"UK High School Curriculum" no longer exists. Given it's devolved to Scotland, it focuses far more on Scottish history than anything else. The first topic is the Wars of Independence, followed by a bunch more topics and their "impact on Scotland", while there were far more relevant contenders in there. It really doesn't like to focus on parts where Scotland was doing particularly badly.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Welcome to the Holy Roman Empire. May I introduce you to my 39 cousins?

 

[Pangur Bán]

A unified curriculum has never existed in theory, but always in practice. Whether its A-Level or Higher there is too much German and Italian history.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Well, most of your kings did come from Germany.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Bit of a mess in the kind of German area there, though.

The German and Italian stories are weird because they are fragmented medieval polities that were 'reunited' in the 19th century. Whereas almost every other part of Europe is about a handful of medieval states increasing their strength, with many breaking up in the 20th century.

 

[Mise]

I didn't learn any German or Italian history in school... I didn't do A-level history, but GCSE history was all WWII, the Soviet Union and the Cold War. I don't think I ever learnt a thing about Germany or Italy outside of the two world wars.

 

[Pangur Bán]

I was really referring to the high-end last two years of education, where you look in intellectual depth for the first time. My American brain was on when I wrote that (forgetting that high school starts at 12 in the UK).

 

[Pangur Bán]

When I did the Scottish one it was :
Part 1: 'know Britain and how great it is' (growth of democracy, etc)
Part 2: 'know thine enemy' (growth of nationalism in Germany and Italy)
Part 3: 'do not appease thine enemy, true evil' (UK foreign policy towards Italy and Germany).

After that it was learning about how daft communism is, and how all it produced was economic evil and bad dictators.

It was basically indoctrination. I'm sure it will be updated in a few years to tell teenagers how evil anti-globalization is, and how the demonic forces of Islam can only be stopped through abolition of civil liberties and replacement of democratic governments by oil execs.

 

[gay_Aleks]

All hail Hyypnotoaaaad.