Is the UK actually going to break up soon?

[CumbrianLefty]

Perhaps they should. This little experiment has gone on for too long.   

We might soon be able to ask this question about your country, the way things are going.......

[CumbrianLefty]

SNP were known (mostly by antagonistic Labourites, granted) as the "Tartan Tories" in the olden days - they certainly had MPs who would almost certainly have taken the Tory whip south of the border until the 1979 GE.

That tendency has long been marginalised, but is not totally extinct even now.

[CumbrianLefty]

I sure hope so. I for one no longer want to live in Dumbistan

Vote him out at the earliest opportunity, then.

[CumbrianLefty]

Such a breakup would condemn England & Wales to eternal Conservative rule.

Except that only one of Labour's election wins since WW2 wouldn't have happened without Scotland - indeed, its secession could be seen as making a Labour overall majority in rUK *more* likely if you think the present SNP electoral dominance there is here to stay (though for me, the jury is still out on that even if they seem well placed right now)

[CumbrianLefty]

I don't see a partition of NI as any more realistic a prospect now than it was a century ago.

If it ever joins the Republic, it will do so in full. And its not *totally* impossible the unionist community will come to some sort of accommodation with that prospect if it appears inescapable.

[CumbrianLefty]

I don't see a partition of NI as any more realistic a prospect now than it was a century ago.

If it ever joins the Republic, it will do so in full. And its not *totally* impossible the unionist community will come to some sort of accommodation with that prospect if it appears inescapable.

...You’ve not met many loyalists have you? Their entire political identity is based around not being Irish. Like how the Catholic’s entire identity is based around not being British - they haven’t come to an accommodation with the prospect of being British after 200 years so there’s no reason to think the reverse would happen. Ulster is already partitioned anyway, part of it is with the republic - there’s no reason more counties can’t go and join the republic and the rest remain part of the UK if it came to it.

Yes, I know all that I assure you. Stranger things have happened, however.

A further division of NI was proposed in the 1920s and rejected as it would make the remaining rump province unviable - indeed the present six counties (and not the full nine that make up Ulster, don't forget) are arguably the bare minimum to make it a feasible proposition.

[CumbrianLefty]

I don't see a partition of NI as any more realistic a prospect now than it was a century ago.

If it ever joins the Republic, it will do so in full. And its not *totally* impossible the unionist community will come to some sort of accommodation with that prospect if it appears inescapable.

What kind of accommodations? The only thing I could imagine is a federalized Irish state where NI has a lot of autonomy in its regional policies to ensure that the unionists have some kind of voice. I definitely don't see the ROI completely changing their gov't for the sake of comforting people who don't wish to be Irish.  

Reunification sounds really good but people dramatically oversimplify the process it needs to take. I guess a second partition would be more practical, but the threat of violence would still be there

Well yes, that sort of thing would surely have to happen.

There's actually a decent argument that NI Protestants would in reality have quite a lot of clout in a united Ireland, very possibly disproportionate to their actual numbers. And some of their leaders may even realise this themselves, though being able to say such heretical things in public is still some way away I agree.

[CumbrianLefty]

Without both NI and Scotland it would be such a different country that is arguably misleading.

One is reminded how the rump "Yugoslavia" stopped pretending it was a continuation of the pre-1991 model and renamed itself "Serbia and Montenegro" until the latter bit also broke away. I suspect the same might apply to any "England and Wales" statelet before too long.......