Quote:
Originally Posted by tisonlyi
Dar al-harb? Churchill fetish? Hmm.
You do know that the man wanted Britain into the EU far deeper and far more enthusiastically than anything pretty much anyone wants at the moment? That he encouraged and cheered us into the EEA and an economic arrangement with the Nordic countries that was a lot more integrated than the EU at the time we joined that. Right?
The UK itself is fracturing, Scotland will be gone in a decade or so. Wales a while after and N. Ireland's demographics will take their toll in due course. The flight to jingoistic nationalism mostly amongst the English can be seen as a reaction to those forces of history, grinding their way to their pretty obvious conclusions.
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Don't forget the times. Churchill wanted a strong and united Europe to A) preclude Germany from doing something silly yet again, and B) more critically, to stop the USSR from taking everything over. There were some very serious military threats sitting on the doorstep.
As for Scottish seperation - not gonna happen. Same here in Canada - we've lived with the threat of Quebec seperation for two generations now, and the whole push for such a breakaway is failing badly. Even former hardline seperatists have virtually given it up. In Scotland, you have a similar situation. The desire for independance was stronger in past generations, even if the nationalists get more press coverage today. A seperate Wales is even more unlikely.
Northern Ireland - maybe, or maybe unification with Eire, but I think the status quo is largely satisfactory at this point in time.