YES! YES! (fUK)

What Fanon said (below) about ‘cognitive dissonance’ seems to be having an effect throughout the world media (even independent media) these days.  There is a peculiar fact about life on Earth: Empires rise, Empires fall.  And everyday I believe I am seeing the fall of the British Empire, but I really don’t hear many people talking about it.  I suppose the primary reason for this is the belief that the British Empire has faded and been superseded by a) American hegemony or b) the UN’s version of “Decolonization.”  (as if that had anything to do with….Decolonization….FYI it didn’t!).  And while, yes, the Empire has evolved some new tentacles, no, it is still alive even if not completely well.

 

So it was to my delight that I read an article in The Spectator highlighting the consequences of Scottish Independence:

The result on the 18^th September may cause the dissolution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This Union is in fact made up of three different uniting acts, the evolution of which is worth examining.

The following 2 articles from the Act of Union 1707 clearly show that the primary Union was between the Kingdom of England ‘incorporating Wales’ and the Kingdom of Scotland. Together they formed the so-called ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.

‘ARTICLE I’

‘That The Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland shall upon the first Day of May which shall be in the Year one thousand seven hundred and seven, and for ever after, be united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain.’

‘ARTICLE III’

‘That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one and the same Parliament, to be stiled, “The Parliament of Great Britain”.’

It was this United Kingdom of Great Britain that in 1801 entered into a union with the Kingdom of Ireland. The rump of which after 1922 is the ‘province’ of Northern Ireland. This was not part of the primary Union but was a secondary Union and as such did not interfere with the primary Union.

However for Scotland to become independent the Act of Union 1707 would have to be repealed, thus dissolving the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’.

Calculating the rippling effects of this is something that is forcing my brain to stretch a bit.  I honestly don’t know enough to present a thorough analysis, but it’s clear to me that Scottish Independence could really be a shot heard round the world.

The consequences for the north-east of Ireland have been foremost on my mind, but how would this play out in Canada where the British Crown claims most of the land and Lizzy Windsor is head-of-state?  Vancouver, BC just formally declared themselves to be on unceded territory, and the Tsilhqot’in Nation just won a lands claim case in BC.  So not only is Canada’s claim to the land in BC losing more and more legal legs to stand on, we now have to ask ourselves, what is Canada without the British Crown?

How will this play out in the rest of the Empi….I mean Commonwealth?  Australia, where Indigenous Republican movements are active?  Aotearoa (so-called New Zealand) with its ‘constitutional monarchy’ and active Maori decolonization movement?

To me, the big questions are how the EU plays into this (obviously), along with the usual suspects at the IMF, World Bank, etc.  Many of us know that a change of flag does not a revolution make, but the dissolution of Britain is truly no small potatoes.

Advertisements