Scotland, the brave!

Trinity College, Dublin, Library.

I cannot let this day go – Thursday September 18^th 2014 – without mentioning that today, Scotland are voting to be independent of Britain; it will no longer be part of Great Britain (short for Greater Britain, I suppose, like Greater London where I live or Greater Los Angeles, where I used to live).

After centuries fighting for home rule by politicians like Parnell etc, in 1916 there was an insurrection in Dublin, Ireland, for Irish Independence and today Scotland are getting it without a physical fight; I can't believe they will vote no. 

Thousands died over the years for Irish Independence and Scotland have a chance of getting it by a vote.

The union with Ireland was made through bribery and corruption – let me quote Wikipedia and I'm sorry if you don't like Wikipedia . . . The passage of the Act in the Irish Parliament was ultimately achieved with substantial majorities, having failed on the first attempt in 1799. According to contemporary documents and historical analysis, this was achieved through a considerable degree of bribery, with funding provided by the British Secret Service Office, and the awarding of peerages, places and honours to secure votes. Thus, Ireland became part of an extended United Kingdom, ruled directly by a united parliament at Westminster in London, though resistance remained, as evidenced by Robert Emmet's failed Irish Rebellion of 1803.

Now bear that in mind when you read this:

Back to Scotland:

As soon as recent opinion polls reported a rise in the Yes vote the Westminster party leaders, including the Prime Minister, decamped to Scotland like squealing jackals and then the ex-leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown, spoke with the passion he should have shown in 2010 when Labour lost to the Conservatives in the General Election. They were there to beg the Scots not to vote yes.

As with Ireland they offered bribes to the Scots – the so called Devo-Max, empty promises and dreams which will turn into nightmares, and there was a Tory MP on the radio the other day who confirmed that promises would be broken, by saying he wouldn't be voting for the so called promises if there is a no vote.

The same kind of bribes from 211 years ago? I think so.

By the way, 30 years after the insurrection, after the uprising which followed and after the civil war which gave Ireland a kind of freedom (they could never claim Ulster – most of it - in the north) and were left with 26 of the 32 counties, the King of Great Britain, Edward VIII abdicated.

A notice was sent to all the countries where he 'ruled' – amongst them Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland . . . yes Ireland!

The transformation from the Irish Free State to the Republic of Ireland didn't happen till the late forties and then in 1974 that ex King – Edward VIII – who had abdicated in 1936 died; and it was only then that he, officially, ceased to be King of Ireland. The reason is that the rest of the Empire and consequently the Commonwealth, ratified the abdication in 1936, but Ireland didn't bother; this is supposed to be true – what is true is that an Irish woman, The Countess Markievicz, was the first woman elected to the UK House of Commons in 1918 although she never took her seat.

I was in Dublin a few weeks ago; we stayed at Trinity College for one night and had a private tour of the wonderful library where we had a good look at The Book of Kells; the oldest book in the world. I had seen it before but my wife hadn't; the book was created in the year 800 AD.

Afterwards we stayed with family and it was wonderful to see them and they really pushed the boat out for us; wining and dining us – well, whiskeying me as I don't drink wine!

On the way back to London, we were waiting in the departure part of the quay, we had travelled by sea, and my mind was transported back to when we lived in Los Angeles when I went to El Pollo Loco on Sunset Boulevard; in fact I wrote a post about it on here a few years ago.

We were having coffee and a fella came in to the place and, as he carried his coffee from the counter to his table, it became evident that he wasn't wearing a belt, and as he struggled with his coffee, whilst holding his trousers up with his other hand, he let them go slightly exposing his arse; I remember that happening in El Polo Loco: a down and out let his trousers go as he tried to make it to a seat but his went almost all the way down which made a poor woman in front of him go hysterical. And as with the fella in Dublin the arse was as clean and tidy as a whistle and you would have been sorely tempted to give it a gentle tap as you went by – but we didn't go by, we travelled across to Wales were we stopped at the following station:

 Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

Yes from the oldest book in the world to the longest place name in Britain, in Wales of course and definitely the longest domain name without hyphens; will that be the next place for a referendum? Wales I mean not Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

So what's going to happen today? I have worked in Edinburgh a few times and I have a lot of relations there and love Scotland dearly – it has the 2^nd best accent in the world – and we might even have lived there at one time.

Will they vote to get Britain's Nuclear Weapons off their land and keep their own oil and get the government they vote for at General Elections?

I don't know but we shouldn't be giving opinions as to how it will affect us - it's how it affects the people living there that count.

Scotland.

Here's a map of the British Isles with the 'none UK' bits in green. Note how tiny the so called Northern Ireland is and that some of Southern Ireland is further north than Northern Ireland.

I'm not sure if the rest of the world know that Scotland are going to the polls in September to vote for independence. It is a yes/no vote and I really wonder whether they will succeed in breaking away from the rest of the United Kingdom; they have been part of the UK since about 1707 and I also wonder what the political party UKIP will call themselves. They are a kind of British 'Tea Party' with nationalistic, jingoistic, anti-immigrant and other right wing loony policies and UKIP stands for the United Kingdom Independence Party.

The other thing on the line is that if Scotland do break away will they be able to retain use of the pound (£) sterling? The three main parties in Britain don't want Scotland to have the pound – or the BBC or any other British stuff – but I have to ask myself if three individuals have the right to tell anybody within the union whether they can have the pound or not! The three are the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his two shadows. If this was in America there would be a constitutional argument but as there is no constitution in Britain where is the rule book?

What's that I hear you say? Britain? Yes that's part of the title – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Will it still be the United Kingdom with just England, Wales and Northern Ireland as members? Will the UK be weakened by the separation? How strong will Scotland be?

I do know one thing and that is if Ireland had an all Ireland football team – both the Republic and the North – they would be stronger than they are now with the two teams. This shows with the strong rugby team which is made up of the north and south. 

You can also say that about a British football team – England/Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland – but then we wouldn't have the rivalry between the various nations; which is healthy.

Of course we could take it further or even farther and have a European Football team but who would we play? South America? Asia?

There are already two continents who play – the USA and Australia – and whilst they may come to something one day it won't be for a while.

So what will happen if they do gain independence? - Scotland, I mean - Will they build a wall? Will they have an immigration post on every road like they do on the Continent?

The trouble is this is an island and the people who live here are not used to borders like they have elsewhere. People go from England into Wales and Scotland without even noticing it so that will be a difference.

When Scottish, Welsh and Irish people go to America the Americans call them English because they can't quite hear the difference. The Welsh and Scots don't like that, and who can blame them, in fact if you correct them they say 'it's all the same.'

Well it isn't is it?

People over here can't tell the difference between the American and Canadian accents – but is there a Canadian accent or is it just a posh American one with the addition of eh, for sure, and the pronunciation of about as aboat?

There is a certain Scottishness to the Canadian accent and I met a guy in Los Angeles who I would have sworn came from one of the northern Irish counties and he was from Niagra – on the Canadian side.

But I digress – as usual, so what about (aboat) the poand (sic) ? And what about UKIP?