tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post2232074815369051376..comments2024-03-08T13:21:43.158-05:00Comments on Saideman's Semi-Spew: Nationalists Are Like Snowflakes?Steve Saidemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09881915512311951902noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post-39518959334582864712012-01-27T18:45:30.072-05:002012-01-27T18:45:30.072-05:00"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy ..."Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Or maybe it just seems that way when you're unhappy?<br /><br />I did say "alas!" when I said the UK wasn't Canada. And I meant it. If Scotland had enjoyed the powers of a province in addition to its historic differences we probably would't be where we are today. But there is no UN, no EU, no long-established and independent supreme court likely to intervene here. Apart from an unwritten consitution and an untried supereme court there are only the two governments. One is run by a party whose goal is independence. The other is run by two parties. One has "Unionist" in its name and the other of turned its back on a coalition deal in Scotland in 2007 at least in part because this would have meant signing up to a referendum. <br /><br />So what sort of compromises are likely or possible between separatist parties and parties who have always opposed a referendum on independence?<br /><br />It seems highly unlikely that a No vote in the referendum would settle anything. Some recent polling shows a majority of respondents in England would like Scotland to leave the Union. Increasing numbers want an English parliament. A recent poll found a majority of respondents across the UK believed the UK would not last twenty years. Optimists to the end. <br /><br />And to some degree, every election in Scotland since 1974 or thereabouts has been about the constitutional issue. Why should that change? The SNP are no more likely to give up after one defeat than were the nationalists in Quebec. We'd be here again soon enough.<br /><br />There are reasonable arguments for all of the things you propose, but we're not likely to see them implemented. If this scenario had been considered in 1997-98 when devolution was implemented - hardly unthinkable when the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland had laid out some rules for referendums on Irish unification - we wouldn't need to discuss these things today. But the ostrich strategy has been the rule. So they weren't considered and now it is too late.Angus McLellanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14238976801715524150noreply@blogger.com