Thursday, May 7, 2015

British General Election: Good-Bye United Kingtom

I'm a Unionist. In fact, I think that Ireland would be better off had it remained in the UK. But it's clear tonight, as the 2015 General Election results roll in, that the UK no longer exists politically. Consider:

England: Votes for Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UK Independence or Green.  None of these parties will win a seat in either Scotland or Northern Ireland, while just one, Labour, will win some seats in Wales.

Scotland:  Votes for the Scottish Nationalists.  No member of that party will win a seat in either England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Wales: Votes for Plaid Cymru or Labour.  No Plaid Cymru member will win a seat in either England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland:  Votes for the Democratic Unionists or Sinn Fein.  No member of those parties will win a seat in either England, Scotland or Wales, while one, Sinn Fein, has members of parliament in a different nation, Ireland.

There are four broad new political realities that arise from these stark facts:

1) The emergence of the European Union killed the United Kingdom as a supra-national political entity.  Among the non-English left in the UK, there is no need for any London intermediaries.

2) The emergence of the SNP is not, as some seem to think, a harbinger of Scottish nationalism. The SNP, like the Parti Quebecois, is not a nationalist party at all; neither exists to preserve its nation's people, culture, language, history or unique characteristics.  Both are instead left-wing social democratic parties resentful of having to live in the traditionally conservative Anglo political culture, and votes for both are for the purpose of NOT leaving the country but extracting the most possible socialist benefits from those Anglos who can pay.  Basically, the UK has just become Canada, and Scotland is the new Quebec, always demanding more from the Treasury and threatening succession if they don't receive the ransom, yet never quite delivering on promises of independence.  It is striking, given the close historical links between Canada and the UK, that no one in the UK seems to have realized this yet.

3) English nationalism is inevitable.  The English parties cannot reliably govern the other three nations, while England cannot live at the mercy of the other three governing their affairs.

4) This new reality will eventually spur Unionists in Northern Ireland to seek either outright independence (not likely) or cut a new, historic deal with Dublin (much more likely).  If it is done right, the Irish flag's colors will finally reflect reality. 

9 comments:

  1. Plaid Cymru sounds like a character from some maid fetish anime series.

    OK - yeah - she and her busty sister maids Paisley Cymru, Gingham Cymru, Houndstooth Cymru, and Argyle Cymru all serve tea and crumpets at the Cafe Albion.

    What will happen when the proprietor Quimley O'Toole is captured by Perfidia, evil Sniffer of the Privy Glue? Will the Maids save him? Madcap capers await.

    [See, this is why I don't need drugs. Also why we can't have nice things.]

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    1. img:"http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/floranista/emoticons/ROFLOL-1.png"

      lewy, you are too much! I was really hacked off at some extra charges we received in the mail tonight for a boundary survey (all that "creative" billing for items that don't fall under the "scope" of the job, grrrr). I feel better after stopping off here...

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    2. "Quimley O'Toole"

      Haaahaahaahahahaaaha

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    3. flo, sorry to hear about your survey - we've had a fair amount of survey work done on some property as well - what'd they hit you for?

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    4. An extra $158, $22 for milage and equipment (we live 5 minutes from their office) and $136 for a recording fee. I think the latter should have been included in the survey cost. The $22 was just gouging, I mean "milage" and 4 wooden stakes? It just hacks me off, charge what you're going to charge up front - don't nickel and dime me, you know???

      @#$%^&

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    5. We have approx. an acre and it's fairly square. They charged $1200. We suspected our fence line was inside our actual property line and it is - almost 3' inside all the way around. There is a multi-home developement going in on part of the east side so we also had our 4' chain link taken out and replaced with a 6' chain link on the property line. That was MUCH more than the survey and they just finished yesterday. When I went out to look at the finished job, I see that the fence doesn't meet the ground at any point and is 6"-10" above the ground on average. The head guy hasn't called back yet. Of course, I still owe them $1500+ so I'm not too worried on that score but it's ALWAYS SOMETHING. I got the bill with the extra survey charges shortly after I discovered the fence "issue".

      img:"http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/floranista/emoticons/pullhair.gif"

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  2. ok back to reality - I will check out the FT tonight and see if the Scotland = Quebec meme surfaces - if not I'll put it out there and see what sticks.

    I made a comment in the FT last week observing the ridiculousness of the conventional wisdom about the parties:

    UKIP: want the UK to leave the EU - horrid extremist racists, beyond the pale.
    SNP: want Scotlland to leave the UK - perfectly OK mainstream party.

    Got many upvotes fwiw.

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  3. Jourdan, I found this commentary to be salient on the point of English nationalism.

    I would agree with it: England has a national party, and it is the Conservative party.

    Found this in a story at the FT:

    There was shock and despondency in Labour’s headquarters in Victoria, London, as the extent of its potential defeat sank in.

    “Jesus Christ,” said one party aide. “It’s over. It’s over.”


    Yeah. It's over. Because England is alone, and the voters now have irrefutable proof, and Labor can't do sh*t without Scotland, and Scotland is gone from them.

    So you vote for the Conservatives, because to vote Labor is to vote not only for the Party of Free Stuff, but the Party of Free Stuff for Other People. And this is sinking in now.

    UKIP could poll at about 30 or 40 percent of what the Conservatives poll at and still win approximately zero seats, because of the first past the post system.

    So the game choice for the archetypical English voter is to vote Conservative or throw your vote away (at best). Might as well have one's local MP to be a member of the governing party.

    Preference cascade. Game over.

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