Quote:
Originally Posted by tisonlyi
highthief: I don't know how well you know the situation in the UK, Scotland particularly, but the Scots have their own legal system, a hefty and growing measure of home rule, Nationalists in power in said parliament with growing support.
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Oh, I'm well familiar with the whole devolution thing. Providing greater degrees of autonomy in some areas does not equate to seperation. In some ways, US states have more autonomy than Scotland does from central government, and Quebec certainly does. If Scotland were a homogenous nation filled with nothing but Scots, I'd agree that seperation might happen. But like Quebec, there is a solid minority of English in the Borders regions and in major centers, along with enough Scots who are either apathetic towards seperation or who outright oppose it. Economic interests are largely against it as well, and people tend to choose prosperity over political ideology in developed nations. Hell, why is it that only "lesser" nations - the USSR, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, etc tend to splinter as opposed to wealthy and advanced nations like Canada, Belgium, the UK, or any other nation that has had to face up to a seperatist agenda? In the end, pragmatism wins out.
The SNP may be the ruling party, but it's a minority is it not, with seperation opposed by the other 3 parties?
As far as I know, there has never been a public opinion poll where - given the options of 1) Independance, 2) the status quo, or 3) a bit more autonomy - that support for independance has ever come close to carrying the day.