What Scotland does, Scotland does. i would never presume to tell another nation what to do about its government.
Scotland wants to talk independence.
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The difference between Canada and the UK, though, is that Canada is a federal nation and the UK isn't.
In Canada every province has its own government which has certain powers devolved to it. Each province, in turn, is ruled by the Canadian Parliament.
In the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each has their own parliament or assembly, with certain devolved powers. However, England doesn't. Scotland, Wales and NI are each also ruled by the UK Parliament at Westminster. England is ruled solely by the UK Parliament at Westminster. So we have the unfair situation of Scottish, Welsh and NI MPs being able to have a say on matters concerning only England, but English MPs are not allowed to have a say on matters concerning only Scotland, only Wales or only NI.
It's no wonder that the English are more pro-Scottish independence than the Scottish are.
In Canada every province has its own government which has certain powers devolved to it. Each province, in turn, is ruled by the Canadian Parliament.
In the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each has their own parliament or assembly, with certain devolved powers. However, England doesn't. Scotland, Wales and NI are each also ruled by the UK Parliament at Westminster. England is ruled solely by the UK Parliament at Westminster. So we have the unfair situation of Scottish, Welsh and NI MPs being able to have a say on matters concerning only England, but English MPs are not allowed to have a say on matters concerning only Scotland, only Wales or only NI.
It's no wonder that the English are more pro-Scottish independence than the Scottish are.
Pity, all those minor peoples trapped on a few islands off the coast of France. It would be welcome if they learnt to share and play nicely.
As Scots around the world celebrate Burns Night today, here's a snippet of a Robert Burns poem that Scottish nationalists may want to take note of:
Be Britain still to Britain true,
Amang ourselves united;
For never but by British hands
Maun British wrangs be righted!
No! never but by British hands
Shall British wrangs be righted!
Robert Burns, 1759-1796
For, hard as it will be for Scottish nationalists to swallow, Robert Burns, their great Scottish hero, was a Unionist. He consistent declared his support for Scotland being in the Union. He was also a royalist.
In one of the very last letters he copied into his book of manuscripts, he avowed his ‘independent British spirit’ and in his commonplace book he wrote: “Whatever might be my sentiments of republics, ancient or modern, as to Britain I ever abjured the idea. A constitution which, in its original principles, experience has proved has in every way to fitted for our happiness, it would be insanity to abandon for untried visionary theory.”
On that evidence it seems a safe bet that Burns would be among the two-thirds of Scots who spurn SNP-style separation in 2008.
The romantic in him would like to have been a Jacobite and served a Scottish King and Parliament, yet when his loyalty was questioned and he was wrongly suspected of joining in a revolutionary demonstration he protested in writing his allegiance to the UK constitution and the Hanoverian king in London: “To the British constitution next after God, I am most devoutly attached … I always revered, and ever will, the Monarch of Great Britain.”
At SNP Burns Suppers up and down the land and overseas, they will trot out ad nauseam his lines on the Treaty of Union: ‘a coward few … hireling traitors …sic a parcel of rogues in a nation’. The last is a favourite of First Minister Alex Salmond who rolls it out with lip-licking relish with the clear intent of applying it to present-day Unionists; but, again, the fact is that it has a narrower application to the Scottish Lords who lined their own pockets in the sell-out that was the 1707 Treaty of Union.
Burns thought enough of the benefits of Union to become a £70-a-year exciseman or ‘ganger’ raising taxes for the UK government and pursuing revenue-dodgers among the hills and vales of Nithsdale. As a result of his farming and financial failures, he actually wrote a letter to one of his patrons virtually begging for a job in London and we can wonder what the Nationalist attitude would now be if he had gone to London and converted to an ‘Anglo-Scot’?
Another oft-quoted snippet from the Burns notebook is ‘Nothing can reconcile me to the common terms ‘English ambassador, English court, etc. …’ but the reason for his resentment of the word ‘English’ was that it did not acknowledge Scotland’s place in the Union.
What might Burns have become had he lived longer, had fewer faults and flaws? Thomas Carlyle stated that Burns ought, as the first man of his time, to have been ‘at the helm of British affairs’: “A man like Burns might have divided his hours between poetry and virtuous industry.”
Even more intriguing is what he would be if he lived today. He would certainly have welcomed devolution – within, of course, the United Kingdom - and the revived Scottish Parliament. ‘Robert Burns MSP’ has a certain ring to it and ‘First Minister Robert Burns’ is preferable to anything we have had so far.
Source: Tom Brown Scotland - Rabbie the Unionist
Be Britain still to Britain true,
Amang ourselves united;
For never but by British hands
Maun British wrangs be righted!
No! never but by British hands
Shall British wrangs be righted!
Robert Burns, 1759-1796
For, hard as it will be for Scottish nationalists to swallow, Robert Burns, their great Scottish hero, was a Unionist. He consistent declared his support for Scotland being in the Union. He was also a royalist.
In one of the very last letters he copied into his book of manuscripts, he avowed his ‘independent British spirit’ and in his commonplace book he wrote: “Whatever might be my sentiments of republics, ancient or modern, as to Britain I ever abjured the idea. A constitution which, in its original principles, experience has proved has in every way to fitted for our happiness, it would be insanity to abandon for untried visionary theory.”
On that evidence it seems a safe bet that Burns would be among the two-thirds of Scots who spurn SNP-style separation in 2008.
The romantic in him would like to have been a Jacobite and served a Scottish King and Parliament, yet when his loyalty was questioned and he was wrongly suspected of joining in a revolutionary demonstration he protested in writing his allegiance to the UK constitution and the Hanoverian king in London: “To the British constitution next after God, I am most devoutly attached … I always revered, and ever will, the Monarch of Great Britain.”
At SNP Burns Suppers up and down the land and overseas, they will trot out ad nauseam his lines on the Treaty of Union: ‘a coward few … hireling traitors …sic a parcel of rogues in a nation’. The last is a favourite of First Minister Alex Salmond who rolls it out with lip-licking relish with the clear intent of applying it to present-day Unionists; but, again, the fact is that it has a narrower application to the Scottish Lords who lined their own pockets in the sell-out that was the 1707 Treaty of Union.
Burns thought enough of the benefits of Union to become a £70-a-year exciseman or ‘ganger’ raising taxes for the UK government and pursuing revenue-dodgers among the hills and vales of Nithsdale. As a result of his farming and financial failures, he actually wrote a letter to one of his patrons virtually begging for a job in London and we can wonder what the Nationalist attitude would now be if he had gone to London and converted to an ‘Anglo-Scot’?
Another oft-quoted snippet from the Burns notebook is ‘Nothing can reconcile me to the common terms ‘English ambassador, English court, etc. …’ but the reason for his resentment of the word ‘English’ was that it did not acknowledge Scotland’s place in the Union.
What might Burns have become had he lived longer, had fewer faults and flaws? Thomas Carlyle stated that Burns ought, as the first man of his time, to have been ‘at the helm of British affairs’: “A man like Burns might have divided his hours between poetry and virtuous industry.”
Even more intriguing is what he would be if he lived today. He would certainly have welcomed devolution – within, of course, the United Kingdom - and the revived Scottish Parliament. ‘Robert Burns MSP’ has a certain ring to it and ‘First Minister Robert Burns’ is preferable to anything we have had so far.
Source: Tom Brown Scotland - Rabbie the Unionist
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A cry for Scottish independence...
SCOTS WHA HAE
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory !
Wha for Scotland's king and law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa',
Let him follow me !
-Robert Burns, 1793
SCOTS WHA HAE
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory !
Wha for Scotland's king and law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa',
Let him follow me !
-Robert Burns, 1793
Thought I'd look up a haggis recipe for Burns Night but the local Overwaitea was out of sheep's lungs, heart, liver, and stomach. Who'd've thought that?!
With its military, scientific and cultural achievements, the Union of England, Scotland and Wales is history's greatest success story. To let blinkered, mean-spirited and unscrupulous politicians destroy it would be unforgivable
By Dominic Sandbrook
27th January 2012
Daily Mail
The UK has been the world's most successful nation-state
Read more: Scottish independence debate: Is this the end of Britain? | Mail Online
Yeah. Haggis is made mainly out of sheep's lung with a bit of sheeps' heart and liver and minced with with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and often encased in the sheep's stomach. It's also delicious. I have it quite often. I usually have Hall's haggis.
By Dominic Sandbrook
27th January 2012
Daily Mail
The UK has been the world's most successful nation-state
Read more: Scottish independence debate: Is this the end of Britain? | Mail Online
Yeah. Haggis is made mainly out of sheep's lung with a bit of sheeps' heart and liver and minced with with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and often encased in the sheep's stomach. It's also delicious. I have it quite often. I usually have Hall's haggis.
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Robbie Burns day... Not quite the drunken mayhem of St Patricks day. This could easily be remedied by the Scots offering up a plaid beer?
With its military, scientific and cultural achievements, the Union of England, Scotland and Wales is history's greatest success story. To let blinkered, mean-spirited and unscrupulous politicians destroy it would be unforgivable
Blinkered, mean spirited and unscrupulous politicians united England Scotland and Wales Lord Blackleaf. What you suggest might be the problem is in fact exactly whats needed to rise again. Why don't you just put down the rebel mob? Cuz the sun has set for good on the British Empire at least since the end of the #2 world war which you still owe on incidently. Scotland will piss all over you and leave the marriage, and there's nothing you can do but drink till you drop,Hundreds of years of spousal abuse is just too much. I guess it wasn't love eh.
Blinkered, mean spirited and unscrupulous politicians united England Scotland and Wales Lord Blackleaf. What you suggest might be the problem is in fact exactly whats needed to rise again. Why don't you just put down the rebel mob? Cuz the sun has set for good on the British Empire at least since the end of the #2 world war which you still owe on incidently. Scotland will piss all over you and leave the marriage, and there's nothing you can do but drink till you drop,Hundreds of years of spousal abuse is just too much. I guess it wasn't love eh.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that, because he wrote this poem, Burns was a Scottish nationalist. He was nothing of the sort. As I've already proven, he wrote of his love for Britain in letters and poems.
He says nothing in all his poems and 600 songs about the Jacobite rebellion which took place just a generation before him. His praise for William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in the above poem was more to do with opposing "tyranny" than seeking outright independence.
As we all know, the Union of England, Scotland and Wales was one of the wisest decisions ever made. As independent nations all three were insignificant little nothings off the coast of the European continent. United as the UK the three became the richest and most powerful nations on the planet, at the head of the largest and richest empire the world has ever seen, an empire which the Scots very much helped to create and profit from.
I don't see what the British Empire has got to do with Scottish independence. And you should be grateful for Britain's actions during WWII. If it wasn't for Britain the whole of Europe and maybe other parts of the world would be speaking German now.
How exactly would Scotland becoming independent bother the English? The English are MORE in favour of Scottish independence than the Scots are.
And if Scotland becomes independent and then it suddenly becomes apparent that it cannot survive on its own and its economy starts struggling as a result, as many people believe will be the case, then it'd be the English having the last laugh.
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"Poor old Scotland, treated badly by those nasty, evil English."
Grow up, pal. The Union has been very good for Scotland. Thanks in large part to the wealth Scotland gained from the Empire which it largely created, Scotland within the United Kingdom became a very wealthy nation, and was part of the wealthiest nation on the planet. This is a far cry from the economic backwater Scotland was just before it united with England and Wales.
Of course, the whole reason why Scotland joined the Union in the first place was to become wealthy. It was so poor at the start of the Eighteenth Century that it tried to start a Scottish Empire in Central America. When this failed spectacularly it then decided to unify with England and Wales, create a new Kingdom of Great Britain and try and create a British Empire and get rich from the resultant profits. And get rich off the resultant profits it did.
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It's lucky for you that Britain did start an empire. Otherwise there'd be no Canada now. Canadians, like Americans and the peoples of other nations which were created by the British Empire, should be grateful to that empire.
O, I could learn French.
By the by, are you denying the crimes against humanity committed in the creation of empire?
By the by, are you denying the crimes against humanity committed in the creation of empire?
How would we know? We'd be living another reality - speaking either English (American) or French
I hear Iceland is looking for 'friend' who are willing to 'buck the system'. Perhaps together they can put together some business that is in the sale of huge amounts of unlimited electricity. There are a lots of 'Scots' living in foreign nations so income just from donations would keep them goings for awhile in their bailout from England and Wales and their debt structure.
Having Scotland 'disappear from the pages of time' in name would make all the Whiskey named after them rise substantially in price as all would become collectors items and the new brands will be tried by some just because the taste 'might be different'.
Having Scotland 'disappear from the pages of time' in name would make all the Whiskey named after them rise substantially in price as all would become collectors items and the new brands will be tried by some just because the taste 'might be different'.